897.73 

AL22c     _JUden.   W.    L. 

I 

AUTHOR 
TITLE 

Christopher 

J        Columbus 

DATE 
LOANED 

BORROWER'S   NAME 

DATE       / 
RETURNED 

r   i           O      1 

t\l                    ^^ 

Sz 

807.73 

AX22c 
v 


A'lden>  *?7.   IL. 

Chrl s  topher  Columbus 


F.  P.  P1TZER 

"WILFRED'S    ROOST" 

41  WOODLAWN  AVE, 
JERSEY  CITY.  N.  J- 


Slips  for  Librarians  to  paste  on  Catalogue 
Cards. 

N.B. — Take  out  carefully,  leaving  about  quarter  of  an  inch 
at  the  back.  To  do  otherwise  would,  in  some  cases,  release 
other  leaves. 


ALDEN,  WILLIAM  L.  CHRISTOPHER  COLUM- 
BUS (1440-1506).  The  First  American  Citizen 
(By  Adoption).  By  William  L.  Alden.  New 
York  :  Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  1881.  i6mo,  pp.  287. 
(Lives  of  American  Worthies). 


COLUMBUS,  CHRISTOPHER,  (1440-1506). 
The  First  American  Citizen  (By  Adoption).  By 
William  L.  Alden.  New  York :  Henry  Holt  & 
Co.,  1881.  i6mo,  pp.  287.  (Lives  of  American 
Worthies). 


HISTORY.  CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS  (1440-1506). 
The  First  American  Citizen  (By  Adoption).  By 
William  L.  Alden.  New  York :  Henry  Holt  & 
Co.,  1 88 1.  i6mo,  pp.  287.  (Lives  of  American 
Worthies). 


LIVES  OF  AMERICAN  WORTHIES. 

Under  the  above  title,  Messrs.  HENRY  HOLT  &  Co. 
are  contributing  one  more  biographical  series  to  the 
number  with  which  the  reading  world  is  being  so  abund- 
antly favored. 

That  there  may  be  something  in  the  method  of  this 
series  not  altogether  indentical  with  that  of  its  numerous 
predecessors,  contemporaries  and  promised  successors, 
will  perhaps  be  suspected  from  the  list  of  subjects  and 
authors  thus  far  selected  : 

CHRISTOPHER    COLUMBUS,    (1440-1506), 

By  W.  L.  ALDEN,   (of  the  New   York    Times], 

Author  of  "  The  Moral  Pirates,"  etc. 
CAPTAIN    JOHN    SMITH,    (1579-1631), 

By  CHARLES   DUDLEY  WARNER,  Author  of 

"My  Summer  in  a  Garden,"  etc. 
WILLIAM    PENN,     (1644-1715), 

By  ROBERT  J.  BURDETTE,  of  the  Burlington 

Ha-wkeye. 
BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN,    1706-1790), 

By 
GEORGE    WASHINGTON,    (1732-1799), 

By  JOHN    HABBERTON,  Author  of  "  Helen's 

Babies,"  etc. 
THOMAS   JEFFERSON,    (1743-1826), 

By        " 

ANDREW    JACKSON,    (1767-1845), 

By  GEORGE  T.  LANIGAN,  Author  of  "  Fables 
out  of  the   World." 

If  the  names  of  the  authors  awaken  a  suspicion 
that  there  may  be  something  humorous  in  the  books,  it 
should  be  known  that  despite  anything  of  that  kind,  the 
truth  of  history  is  adhered  to  with  most  uncompromising 
rigidity— perhaps,  in  some  cases,  a  little  too  uncom- 
promising, or  compromising  :  that  depends  on  the  point 
of  view. 

Recent  announcements  make  it  proper  to  state  that 
this  series  was  begun  several  years  before  the  date  of 
this  prospectus,  and  that  the  first  volume  published — 
Mr.  Charles  Dudley  Warner's  Life  of  Captain  John 
Smith,  was  in  type  in  the  Spring  of  the  current  year. 

New  York,  November,  1881. 


JkJ 


LIVES    OF  AMERICAN    WORTHIES 


CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS 

(1440-1506) 


THE   FIRST  AMERICAN  CITIZEN 
(BY  ADOPTION) 


BY 


W.   L.  ALDEN 


Ate, 


NEW    YORK 
HENRY     HOLT     AND     COMPANY 

1881 


COPVRIGHT,    l88l, 
BY 

HENRY    HOLT   &   CO. 


Electrotyped  and  Printed  by 

S.W.  GREEN'S  SON, 
74  and  76  Beekmon  Street, 

NEW  YOBK. 


SRLT3 
URL 


CHAPTER   I. 

EARLY    YEARS. 

PHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS  was 

\j  born  at  more  places  and  to  a,  greater 
extent  than  any  other  eminent  man  known 
to  history.  He  was  born  at  frequent  in- 
tervals from  1436  to  1446,  and  at  Cogoletto, 
Genoa,  Finale,  Oneglia,  Savona,  Padrello, 
and  Boggiasco.  Learned  historians  have 
conclusively  shown  that  he  was  born  at  each 
one  of  the  places,  and  each  historian  has 
had  him  born  at  a  different  date  from  that 
fixed  upon  by  a  rival  historian.  To  doubt 
their  demonstrations  would  be  to  treat  his- 
tory and  historians  with  gross  irreverence, 
and  would  evince  a  singular  lack  of  busi- 
ness tact  on  the  part  of  one  proposing  to 
add  another  to  the  various  histories  of 
Columbus. 

Perhaps  the  majority  of  people  believe 
that    Columbus  was   born    exclusively  at 


2  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.  [vEt.  o 

Cogoletto ;  but  no  one  retains  that  belief 
after  having  once  visited  Cogoletto,  and 
drank  the  painfully  sour  wine  produced  at 
that  wretched  little  village.  It  is  true  that 
Mr.  Tennyson,  who  remarks  that  he  once 

"  Stay'd  the  wheels  at  Cogoletto, 
And  drank,  and  loyally  drank,  to  him," 

still  believes  that  it  was  the  birthplace  of 
the  great  Admiral.  But  this  fact  simply 
shows  that  Mr.  Tennyson  drank  out  of  his 
own  flask.  Few  people  who  visit  Cogo- 
letto take  this  wise  precaution,  and  the  re- 
sult is  that,  after  drinking  to  the  memory 
of  Columbus,  they  go  on  their  way  firmly 
convinced  that  wherever  else  he  was  born, 
he  certainly  was  not  born  at  Cogeletto. 

It  was  the  opinion  of  the  late  Washing- 
ton Irving  that  Genoa  was  the  real  birth- 
place of  Columbus.  This  opinion  was 
what  might  have  been  expected  from  a 
man  of  such  unfailing  good  taste. 

The  production  of  infants  is  to  this  day 
one  of  the  leading  industries  of  Genoa,  and 
as  it  is  a  large  and  beautiful  city,  we  can- 


1436]  EARLY  YEARS.  3 

not  do  better  than  to  adopt  Mr.  Irving's 
opinion  that  it  was  Columbus's  favorite 
birthplace.  At  the  same  time  we  might 
as  well  select  the  year  1436  as  the  year  of 
his  birth,  with  the  determination  of  adher- 
ing to  it,  for  it  adds  much  to  the  symmetry 
of  a  biography  if  the  subject  thereof  is 
given  a  definite  and  fixed  birthday. 

At  his  birth  Christopher  Columbus  was 
simply  Cristoforo  Colombo,  and  it  was  not 
until  he  arrived  at  manhood  that  he  was 
translated  into  Latin,  in  which  tongue  he 
has  been  handed  down  to  the  present 
generation.  At  a  still  later  period  he 
translated  himself  into  Spanish,  becoming 
thereby  Christoval  Colon.  We  can  not 
be  too  thankful  that  he  was  never  trans- 
lated into  German,  for  we  could  scarcely 
take  pride  in  a  country  discovered  by  one 
Kolotnpo. 

The  father  of  Columbus  was  Domenico 
Colombo,  a  wool-comber  by  occupation. 
Whose  wool  he  combed,  and  why  he 
combed  it,  and  whether  wool-combing  is 
preferable  to  wool-gathering  as  an  intellec- 


4  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.  [JEt.  i 

tual  pursuit,  are  questions  that  have  never 
been  satisfactorily  decided. 

Of  Mrs.  Colombo  we  simply  know  that 
her  Christian  name  was  Fontanarossa,  or 
Red  Fountain,  a  name  more  suitable  to  a 
Sioux  Indian  than  a  Christian  woman, 
though  perhaps,  poor  creature  !  it  was  not 
her  fault. 

Young  Christopher  was  at  an  early  age 
thoughtfully  provided  with  two  younger 
brothers — who  were  afterwards  very  use- 
ful to  him — and  a  younger  sister.  The 
former  were  Giacomo,  afterward  known  as 
Diego,  and  Bartolommeo,  who  has  been 
translated  into  English  as  Bartholomew. 
The  sister  does  not -appear  to  have  had 
any  name,  though  her  mother  might  have 
spared  three  or  four  syllables  of  her  own 
name  without  feeling  the  loss  of  them. 
This  anonymous  sister  married  one  Gia- 
como Bavarello,  and  promptly  vanished 
into  an  obscurity  that  history  cannot  pene- 
trate. 

From  his  earliest  years  Christopher  was 
an  unusual  and  remarkable  boy.  One  day 


EARLY  YEARS.  5 

when  he  was  about  six  years  of  age  he  was 
sent  by  his  mother,  early  in  the  morning, 
to  the  store  to  purchase  a  pound  of  "  blue- 
ing" for  washing  purposes.  The  morning 
grew  to  noon,  and  the  afternoon  waned 
until  evening — processes  which  are  not 
peculiar  to  the  climate  of  Genoa — but  the 
boy  did  not  return,  and  his  mother  was 
unable  to  wash  the  family  clothes.  The 
truant  had  forgotten  all  about  the  "blue- 
ing," and  was  spending  the  entire  day  in 
company  with  the  McGinnis  boys,  watch- 
ing a  base-ball  match  in  the  City  Hall 
Park  between  the  Genoese  Nine  and  the 
Red-legs  of  Turin.  At  dusk  he  returned, 
and  his  broken-hearted  mother  handed 
him  over  to  his  stern  father,  who  invited 
him  into  the  woodshed.  As  Christopher 
was  removing  his  coat  and  loosening  his 
other  garments  so  as  to  satisfy  his  father 
that  he  had  no  shingles  or  school-atlases 
concealed  about  his  person,  he  said  : 

"  Father,  I  stayed  to  witness  that  base- 
ball match,  not  because  of  a  childish  curi- 
osity, nor  yet  because  I  had  any  money  on 


O  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.  [JEt.  6 

the  game,  but  solely  in  order  to  study  the 
flight  of  the  ball,  hoping  thereby  to  obtain 
some  hints  as  to  the  law  of  projectiles  that 
would  enable  me  to  improve  the  science  of 
gunnery,  which  is  now  by  no  means  in  an 
advanced  state.  If,  in  view  of  these  cir- 
cumstances, you  still  think  me  worthy  of 
punishment,  I  will  submit  with  all  the 
fortitude  I  can  summon." 

The  father,  deeply  moved  at  this  frank 
confession, wore  out  two  apple-tree  switches 
in  connection  with  his  son,  and  informed 
him  that  if  he  ever  went  with  those 
McGinnis  boys  again  he  would  "  let  him 
know." 

At  another  time,  when  Christopher  was 
about  eight  years  old,  his  father  sent  him 
to  a  news  company's  office  to  get  the  last 
number  of  the  Wool-Combers  Trade  Re- 
view ;  but,  as  before,  the  boy  failed  to  re- 
turn, and  after  a  prolonged  search  was 
given  up  as  lost,  and  his  parents  decided 
that  he  had  been  run  over  by  the  horse- 
cars.  Late  in  the  evening  Christopher 
was  detected  in  the  act  of  trying  to  sneak 


1443]  EARLY  YEARS.  7 

into  the  house  through  the  kitchen  win- 
dows, and  was  warmly  received  by  his 
father,  who  stood  him  up  in  the  middle  of 
the  kitchen,  and  without  releasing  his  ear, 
demanded  to  know  what  he  had  to  say  for 
himself. 

Christopher,  with  a  saddened  expression 
of  face,  replied : 

"  Father,  I  find  it  a  matter  of  extreme 
difficulty  to  depart  from  the  truth,  even  at 
this  trying  moment.  Candor  compels  me 
to  admit  that  I  have  spent  the  day  in 
company  with  Michael  and  Patrick  Mc- 
Ginnis,  in  studying  the  meteorological 
laws  which  affect  the  flight  of  kites.  With 
the  aid  of  the  last  number  of  the  Wool- 
Combers  Trade  Review  and  a  few  sticks, 
I  made  a  beautiful  kite,  and  I  can  confi- 
dently say  that — " 

Here  the  old  gentleman,  exclaiming, 
"That  will  do!  Your  explanation  is 
worse  than  your  other  crime,"  applied  a 
rattan  cane  to  the  future  explorer,  and 
afterwards  sent  him  to'bed  supperless. 

There  is  not  a  word  of  truth  in  these 


8  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.  \IS\.  8 

two  anecdotes,  but  they  are  introduced  in 
order  to  afford  the  reader  a  slight  glimpse 
of  the  boyhood  of  Columbus.  They  prob- 
ably compare  favorably,  in  point  of  vera- 
city, with  the  average  anecdotes  of  the 
boyhood  of  great  men,  and  they  show  us 
that  even  while  Columbus  was  only  six 
and  eight  years  old  he  was  interested  in 
scientific  pursuits,  and  already  gave  prom- 
ise of  great  tediousness.  Still,  it  would 
be  unwise  for  any  one  to  believe  them, 
and  we  will  pass  on  to  the  more  prosaic 
but  truthful  facts  of  Columbus's  life. 

Young  Christopher  early  conceived  a 
prejudice  against  wool-combing,  although 
it  was  his  father's  earnest  desire  that  he 
should  adopt  that  profession.  Fernando 
Columbus,  the  son  of  the  admiral,  evident- 
ly felt  ashamed  of  his  noble  father's  early 
wool-combing  exploits,  and  says  that 
Domenico  Colombo,  so  far  from  desiring 
his  son  to  comb  wool,  sent  him  at  the  age 
of  thirteen  to  the  University  of  Pavia  to 
study  navigation,  w*ith  a  view  of  ultimately 
sending  him  to  sea.  Now,  although  the 


1449]  EARLY  YEARS.  9 

United  States  Government  does  undertake 
to  teach  seamanship  with  the  aid  of  text- 
books to  young  men  at  the  Annapolis 
Naval  Academy,  the  idea  that  a  young 
man  could  become  a  sailor  without  going 
to  sea  had  never  occurred  to  the  Genoese, 
and  old  Domenico  never  could  have  been 
stupid  enough  to  send  his  son  to  the  Pavia 
University  with  the  expectation  that  he 
would  graduate  with  the  marine  degree 
of  "A.  B."  Undoubtedly  Christopher 
went  to  Pavia,  but  it  is  conceded  that  he 
remained  there  a  very  short  time.  If  we 
suppose  that,  instead  of  studying  his  Livy, 
his  Anabasis,  and  his  Loomis's  Algebra, 
he  spent  his  time  in  reading  Marry at's  sea 
stories,  and  dime  novels  illustrative  of 
piracy,  we  can  understand  why  his  univer- 
sity course  came  to  a  sudden  end,  and  why 
Domenico  remarked  to  his  friends  that 
Christopher  studied  navigation  while  at 
Pavia. 

We  are  told  that  from  his  earliest  years 
Christopher  desired  to  be  a  sailor.  We 
also  know  that  at  that  period  the  Mediter- 


IO  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [./Et.  14 

ranean  swarmed  with  pirates.  From  these 
two  facts  any  modern  boy  with  sufficient 
reasoning  powers  to  be  able  to  put  a  dog, 
a  string,  and  a  tin  can  together,  will  deduce 
the  conclusion  that  Christopher  Columbus 
must  have  wanted  to  be  a  pirate.  As  to 
this  there  can  be  but  little  doubt.  When 
he  left  Pavia  and  returned  home  to  comb 
the  paternal  wool,  he  was  doubtless  fully 
determined  to  run  away  at  the  earliest  op- 
portunity, and  become  a  Red  Revenger  of 
the  seas. 

With  this  clue,  we  can  readily  find  in 
the  conduct  of  the  astute  Domenico  a  wise 
determination  to  effect  a  compromise  with 
his  adventurous  son.  He  did  not  want  to 
be  the  father  of  a  Red  Revenger,  but  he 
knew  that  he  could  not  compel  his  son  to 
comb  wool.  He  therefore  induced  him  to 
consent  to  go  to  sea  as  a  scourge  and 
enemy  of  pirates ;  and  accordingly  in  his 
fourteenth  year  young  Christopher  went 
to  sea  on  board  a  vessel  commanded  by  a 
distant  relative,  who  was  at  one  time  an 
admiral  in  the  Genoese  service.  In  what 


1459]  EARLY  YEARS.  II 

capacity  he  shipped,  whether  as  a  first-class 
or  a  second-class  boy,  or  as  an  acting 
third  assistant  cook,  or  an  ordinary  cabin- 
boy,  we  do  not  know.  Fernando  Colum- 
bus preserves  a  discreet  silence  as  to  this 
matter,  and  as  to  the  first  voyage  of  his 
father  generally.  Of  course  this  silence 
means  something,  and  perhaps  Christopher 
had  good  reasons  for  never  speaking  of 
the  voyage  even  to  his  son.  Probably  he 
was  deathly  sea-sick,  and  in  that  condition 
was  severely  kicked  for  not  being  able  to 
lay  his  hand  at  a  moment's  warning  upon 
the  starboard  main-top-gallant-studding-sail 
tripping-line,  or  other  abstruse  rope.  At 
all  events,  he  always  abstained  from  telling 
stories  beginning,  "  I  reck'lect  on  my  first 
v'yge ;"  and  we  may  be  sure  that  he  would 
never  have  put  such  an  unseamanlike  con- 
straint upon  his  tongue  unless  he  knew 
that  the  less  he  said  about  that  voyage  the 
better. 

He  had  been  a  sailor  for  some  years 
when  he  joined  a  vessel  forming  part  of  an 
expedition  fitted  out  in  Genoa  in  1459  by 


12  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [J£t.  23 

a  certain  Duke  of  Calabria  named  John  of 
Anjou,  who  wanted  to  steal  the  kingdom 
of  Naples  in  order  to  give  it  to  his  father, 
Rene",  Count  of  Provence.  So  pious  a 
son  naturally  commanded  universal  respect, 
and  Genoa  provided  him  with  ships  and 
lent  him  money.  The  expedition  was 
very  large,  and  the  old  Admiral  Colombo, 
with  whom  Christopher  sailed,  probably 
commanded  the  Genoese  contingent.  The 
fleet  cruised  along  the  Neapolitan  coast, 
and  sailed  in  and  out  the  Bay  of  Naples 
any  number  of  times,  but  owing  to  a  fear 
of  the  extortions  of  the  Neapolitan  hack- 
drivers  and  valets-de-place,  there  seems  to 
have  been  no  attempt  made  to  land  at 
Naples.  For  four  years  John  of  Anjou 
persevered  in  trying  to  conquer  Naples, 
but  in  vain ;  and  at  the  end  of  jthat  time 
he  must  have  had  a  tremendous  bill  to  pay 
for  his  Genoese  ships. 

While  engaged  in  this  expedition,  Chris- 
topher was  sent  in  command  of  a  vessel  to 
Tunis,  where  he  was  expected  to  capture  a 
hostile  galley.  Carefully  reading  up  his 


1459-70]  EARLY  YEARS.  1 3 

"  Midshipman  Easy"  and  his  "  Blunt's 
Coast  Pilot,"  he  set  sail ;  but  on  reaching 
the  island  of  San  Pedro,  which  can  easily 
be  found  on  any  map  where  it  is  mentioned 
by  name,  he  learned  that  there  were  also 
in  the  harbor  of  Tunis  two  ships  and  a 
carrick ;  whereupon  his  crew  remarked  that 
they  did  not  propose  to  attack  an  unlimited 
quantity  of  vessels,  but  that  if  Columbus 
would  put  into  Marseilles  and  lay  in  a  few 
more  ships  to  accompany  them,  they  would 
gladly  cut  out  all  the  vessels  at  Tunis. 
Columbus  was  determined  not  to  go  to 
Marseilles, — though  he  does  not  definitely 
say  that  he  owed  money  to  the  keeper  of 
a  sailor  boarding-house  there, — but  he  was 
unable  to  shake  the  resolution  of  his  crew. 
He  therefore  pretended  to  yield  to  their 
wishes  and  set  sail  again,  ostensibly  for 
Marseilles.  The  next  morning,  when  the 
crew  came  on  deck,  they  found  themselves 
near  the  Cape  of  Carthagena,  and  perceived 
that  their  wily  commander  had  deceived 
them. 

This  story  is  told  by  Columbus  himself, 


14  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.    [^Et.  23-34 

and  it  awakens  in  the  mind  of  the  intelli- 
gent reader  some  little  doubt  of  the  narra- 
tor's veracity.  In  the  first  place,  he  admits 
that  he  deceived  his  sailors,  and  hence  we 
have  no  certainty  that  he  was  not  trying 
to  deceive  the  public  when  telling  the 
story  of  the  alleged  deception.  In  the 
second  place,  it  is  scarcely  probable  that 
all  the  crew  promptly  "  turned  in"  at  sun- 
set, leaving  Columbus  himself  at  the  wheel ; 
but  unless  this  was  done,  the  compass  or 
the  stars  must  have  told  them  that  the  ship 
was  not  laying  the  proper  course  for  Mar- 
seilles. Finally,  Columbus,  in  his  exulta- 
tion at  having  deceived  his  crew,  does  not 
so  much  as  mention  Tunis,  or  the  hostile 
vessels  which  it  was  his  duty  to  attack,  nor 
does  he  tell  us  what  business  he  had  at  the 
Cape  of  Carthagena.  We  are  thus  justi- 
fied in  assuming  that  the  story  is  not 
entirely  credible.  Years  afterward,  on  his 
first  transatlantic  voyage,  Columbus  de- 
ceived his  men  concerning  the  number  of 
leagues  they  had  sailed,  and  this  exploit 
was  so  warmly  commended  by  his  admirers 


1459-70]  EARLY  YEARS.  1 5 

that  he  may  have  been  tempted  to  remark 
that  he  always  made  a  point  of  deceiving 
sailors,  and  may  thereupon  have  invented 
this  earlier  instance  as  a  case  in  point. 
Still,  let  us  not  lightly  impugn  his  veracity. 
Perhaps  he  really  did  tell  the  truth  and 
deceive  his  sailors ;  but  whether  he  did  or 
not,  we  should  still  remember  that  many 
of  us  are  merely  human,  and  that  had  we 
been  in  the  place  of  Columbus  we  might 
have  said  and  done  a  variety  of  different 
things. 

What  became  of  Columbus  during 
several  subsequent  years,  we  have  no 
trustworthy  account.  In  all  probability 
he  continued  to  follow  the  sea,  and  per- 
haps caught  up  with  it  now  and  then. 
We  know,  however,  that  at  one  time  he 
commanded  a  galley  belonging  to  a  squad- 
ron under  the  command  of  Colombo  the 
Younger,  a  son  of  the  Colombo  with 
whom  Christopher  sailed  in  the  Neapoli- 
tan expedition.  This  squadron,  falling  in 
with  a  Venetian  fleet  somewhere  off  the 
Portuguese  coast,  immediately  attacked  it, 


1 6  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.  [JEt.  23-34 

Venice  and  Genoa  being  at  that  time  at 
war.  In  the  course  of  the  battle  the  gal- 
ley of  Columbus  was  set  on  fire,  and  as  he 
had  no  available  small-boats — a  fact  which 
must  forever  reflect  disgrace  upon  the 
Genoese  Navy  Department — he  was  com- 
pelled to  jump  overboard  with  all  his 
crew.  He  seems  to  have  lost  all  interest 
in  the  battle  after  the  loss  of  his  galley, 
and  he  therefore  decided  to  go  ashore. 
He  was  six  miles  from  land,  but  with  the 
help  of  an  oar  which  he  put  under  his 
breast  he  swam  ashore  without  difficulty, 
and  when  we  consider  that  he  was  dressed 
in  a  complete  suit  of  armor,  it  is  evident 
that  he  must  have  been  a  very  fine  swim- 
mer. 

It  should  be  mentioned  that,  although 
this  story  is  told  by  Fernando  Columbus, 
certain  carping  critics  have  refused  to  be- 
lieve it,  on  the  paltry  pretext  that,  inas- 
much as  the  naval  fight  in  question  took 
place  several  years  after  Columbus  is 
known  to  have  taken  up  his  residence  in 
Portugal,  he  could  not  have  landed  in  that 


1459-70]  EARLY  YEARS.  I/ 

country  for  the  first  time  immediately  after 
the  battle.  This  is  mere  trifling.  If  Co- 
lumbus could  swim  six  miles  in  a  suit  of 
heavy  armor,  and,  in  all  probability,  with 
his  sword  in  one  hand  and  his  speaking- 
trumpet  in  the  other,  he  could  easily  have 
performed  the  simpler  feat  of  residing  in 
Portugal  several  years  before  he  reached 
that  country.  The  truth  is,  that  historians 
are  perpetually  casting  doubt  upon  all 
legends  of  any  real  merit  or  interest. 
They  have  totally  exploded  the  story  of 
Washington  and  the  cherry-tree,  and  they 
could  not  be  expected  to  concede  that 
Fernando  Columbus  knew  more  about  his 
father  than  persons  living  and  writing  four 
hundred  years  later  could  know.  As  to 
Columbus's  great  swimming  feat,  they 
have  agreed  to  disbelieve  the  whole  story, 
and  of  course  the  public  agrees  with  them. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FIRST  PLANS    OF  EXPLORATION. 

TT  is  at  Lisbon  that  we  are  able  for  the 
•*•  first  time  to  put  our  finger  decisively 
upon  Columbus.  The  stray  glimpses  which 
we  catch  of  him  before  that  time,  whether 
at  Genoa,  Pavia,  Naples,  or  Cape  Car- 
thagena,  are  fleeting  and  unsatisfactory ; 
his  trustworthy  biography  begins  with 
his  residence  at  Lisbon.  He  reached 
there,  we  do^not  know  by  what  route,  in 
the  year  1470,  having  no  money  and  no 
visible  means  of  support.  Instead  of  bor- 
rowing money  and  buying  an  organ,  or 
calling  on  the  leader  of  one  of  the  Lisbon 
political  "halls"  and  obtaining  through  his 
influence  permission  to  set  up  a  peanut 
stand,  he  took  a  far  bolder  course — he 
married.  Let  'it  not  be  supposed  that  he 
represented  himself  to  be  an  Italian  count, 
and  thereby  won  the  hand  of  an  ambitious 


I4?o]      FIRST  PLANS  OF  EXPLORATION.          19 

Portuguese  girl.  The  fact  that  he  married 
the  daughter  of  a  deceased  Italian  navi- 
gator proves  that  he  did  not  resort  to  the 
commonplace  devices  of  the  modern  Ital- 
ian exile.  Dona  Felipa  di  Perestrello  was 
not  only  an  Italian,  and  as  such  could  tell 
a  real  count  from  a  Genoese  sailor  without 
the  use  of  litmus  paper  or  any  other  chem- 
ical test,  but  she  was  entirely  without 
money  and,  viewed  as  a  bride,  was  compli- 
cated with  a  mother-in-law.  Thus  it  is 
evident  that  Columbus  did  not  engage  in 
matrimony  as  a  fortune-hunter,  and  that 
he  must  have  married  Dona  Felipa  purely 
because  he  loved  her.  We  may  explain  in 
the  same  way  her  acceptance  of  the  penni- 
less Genoese  ;  and  the  fact  that  they  lived 
happily  together — if  Fernando  Columbus  is 
to  be  believed — makes  it  clear  that  neither 
expected  anything  from  the  other,  and 
hence  neither  was  disappointed. 

The  departed  navigator,  Di  Perestrello, 
had  been  in  the  service  of  the  Portuguese 
king,  and  had  accumulated  a  large  quan- 
tity of  maps  and  charts,  which  his  widow 


2O  CHRISTOPHER    COLUMBUS.          [^t.  34 

inherited.  She  does  not  appear  to  have 
objected  to  her  daughter's  marriage,  but  the 
depressed  state  of  Columbus's  fortunes  at 
this  period  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  he 
and  his  wife  went  to  reside  with  his  mother- 
in-law,  where  he  doubtless  learned  that 
fortitude  and  dignity  when  exposed  to  vio- 
lence and  strong  language  for  which  he 
afterwards  became  renowned.  Old  Ma- 
dame Perestrello  did  him  one  really  good 
turn  by  presenting  him  with  the  maps, 
charts,  and  log-books  of  her  departed  hus- 
band, and  this  probably  suggested  to  him 
the  idea  which  he  proceeded  to  put  into 
practice,  of  making  and  selling  maps. 

Map-making  at  that  time  offered  a  fine 
field  to  an  imaginative  man,  and  Columbus 
was  not  slow  to  cultivate  it.  H  e  made  beau- 
tiful charts  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  putting 
Japan,  India,  and  other  desirable  Asiatic 
countries  on  its  western  shore,  and  placing 
quantities  of  useful  islands  where  he  con- 
sidered that  they  would  do  the  most  good. 
These  maps  may  possibly  have  been  some- 
what inferior  in  breadth  of  imagination  to 


1470]      FIRST  PLANS  OF  EXPLORATION.          21 

an  average  Herald  map,  but  they  were 
far  superior  in  beauty  ;  and  the  array  of 
novel  animals  with  which  the  various  con- 
tinents and  large  islands  were  sprinkled 
made  them  extremely  attractive.  The  man 
who  bought  one  of  Columbus's  maps  re- 
ceived his  full  money's  worth,  and  what 
with  map-selling,  and  occasional  sea  voy- 
ages to  and  from  Guinea  at  times  when 
Madame  Perestrello  became  rather  too  free 
in  the  use  of  the  stove-lid,  Columbus  man- 
aged to  make  a  tolerably  comfortable  liv- 
ing. 

The  island  of  Porto  Santo,  then  recently 
discovered,  lay  in  the  track  of  vessels  sail- 
ing between  Portugal  and  Guinea,  and 
must  have  attracted  the  attention  of  Co- 
lumbus while  engaged  in  the  several  voy- 
ages which  he  made  early  in  his  married  life. 

It  so  happened  that  Dona  Felipa  came 
into  possession,  by  inheritance,  of  a  small 
property  in  Porto  Santo,  and  Columbus 
thereupon  abandoned  Lisbon  and  with  his 
family  took  up  his  residence  on  that  island. 
Here  he  met  one  Pedro  Correo,  a  bold 


22  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS          [j£t.  34 

sailor  and  a  former  governor  of  Porto  San- 
to, who  was  married  to  Dona  Felipa's  sis- 
ter. Columbus  and  Correo  soon  became 
warm  friends,  and  would  sit  up  together 
half  the  night,  talking  about  the  progress 
of  geographical  discovery  and  the  advan- 
tages of  finding  some  nice  continent  full 
of  gold  and  at  a  great  distance  from  the 
widow  Perestrello. 

At  that  time  there  were  certain  unprin- 
cipled mariners  who  professed  to  have  dis- 
covered meritorious  islands  a  few  hundred 
miles  west  of  Portugal ;  and  though  we 
know  that  these  imaginative  men  told 
what  was  not  true,  Columbus  may  have 
supposed  that  their  stories  were  not  entirely 
without. a  basis  of  truth.  King  Henry  of 
Portugal,  who  died  three  years  after  Co- 
lumbus arrived  at  Lisbon,  had  a  passion 
for  new  countries,  and  the  fashion  which 
he  set  of  fitting  out  exploring  expeditions 
continued  to  prevail  after  his  death. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  there  was  a  gen- 
eral feeling,  at  the  period  when  Columbus 
and  Correo  lived  at  Porto  Santo,  that  the 


1470]      FIRST  PLANS  OF  EXPLORA  TION.          2$ 

discovery  of  either  a  continent  on  the 
western  shore  of  the  Atlantic,  or  a  new 
route  to  China,  would  meet  a  great  popu- 
lar want.  Although  the  Portuguese  had 
sailed  as  far  south  as  Cape  Bojador,  they 
believed  that  no  vessel  could  sail  any  further 
in  that  direction  without  meeting  with  a 
temperature  so  great  as  to  raise  the  water 
of  the  ocean  to  the  boiling-point,  and  it  was 
thus  assumed  that  all  future  navigators 
desirous  of  new  islands  and  continents 
must  search  for  them  in  the  west.  The 
more  Columbus  thought  of  the  matter,  the 
more  firmly  he  became  convinced  that  he 
could  either  discover  valuable  islands  by 
sailing  due  west,  or  that  at  all  events  he 
could  reach  the  coast  of  Japan,  China,  or 
India ;  and  that  it  was  clearly  the  duty  of 
somebody  to  supply  him  with  ships  and 
money  and  put  him  in  command  of  an  ex- 
ploring expedition.  With  this  view  Cor- 
reo  fully  coincided,  and  Columbus  made 
up  his  mind  that  he  would  call  on  a  few 
respectable  kings  and  ask  them  to  fit  out 
such  an  expedition. 


24  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  34 

Fernando  Columbus  informs  us  that  his 
father  based  his  conviction  that  land  could 
be  found  by  sailing  in  a  westerly  direction, 
upon  a  variety  of  reasons.  Although  many 
learned  men  believed  that  the  earth  was 
round,  the  circumference  of  the  globe  was 
then  unknown ;  and  as  every  one  had 
therefore  a  right  to  call  it  what  he  chose, 
Columbus  assumed  that  it  was  compara- 
tively small,  and  that  the  distance  from  the 
Cape  Verde  Islands  eastward  to  the  west- 
ern part  of  Asia  was  fully  two  thirds  of  the 
entire  circumference.  He  also  assumed 
that  the  remaining  third  consisted  in  great 
part  of  the  eastern  portion  of  Asia,  and 
that  hence  the  distance  across  the  Atlan- 
tic, from  Portugal  to  Asia,  was  by  no 
means  great.  In  support  of  this  theory 
he  recalled  the  alleged  fact  that  various 
strange  trees  and  bits  of  wood,  hewn  after 
a  fashion  unknown  in  Europe,  had  from 
time  to  time  been  cast  on  the  European 
shores,  and  must  have  come  out  of  the 
unknown  west. 

This   theory,  founded    as   it  was  upon 


1474]      FIRST  PLANS  OF  EXPLORATION.          2$ 

gratuitous  assumptions,  and  supported  by 
driftwood  of  uncertain  origin  and  doubtful 
veracity,  was  regarded  by  Columbus  as  at 
least  the  equal  of  the  binomial  theorem  in 
credibility,  and  he  felt  confident  that  the 
moment  he  should  bring  it  to  the  attention 
of  an  enterprising  king,  that  monarch 
would  instantly  present  him  with  a  fleet 
and  make  him  Governor-General  of  all 
lands  which  he  might  discover. 

It  was  the  invariable  custom  of  Colum- 
bus to  declare  that  his  chief  reason  for  de- 
siring to  discover  new  countries  was,  that 
he  might  carry  the  Gospel  to  the  pagan 
inhabitants  thereof,  and  also  find  gold 
enough  to  fit  out  a  new  crusade  for  the 
recovery  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  Whether 
old  Pedro  Correo  winked  when  Columbus 
spoke  in  this  pious  strain,  or  whether  Dona 
Felipa,  with  the  charming  frankness  of  her 
sex,  remarked  "  fiddlesticks  ! "  we  shall 
never  know. 

Perhaps  Columbus  really  thought  that 
he  wanted  to  dispense  the  Gospel  and  fight 
the  Mahometans,  and  that  he  did  not  care 


26  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         |>Et.  38 

a  straw  about  becoming  a  great  explorer 
and  having  the  State  capital  of  Ohio  named 
for  him  ;  but  his  fixed  determination  not 
to  carry  a  particle  of  Gospel  to  the  smallest 
possible  pagan,  except  upon  terms  highly 
advantageous  to  his  pocket  and  his  schemes 
of  personal  aggrandizement,  is  scarcely  re- 
concilable with  his  pious  protestations. 
His  own  church  decided,  not  very  long 
ago,  that  his  moral  character  did  not  pre- 
sent available  materials  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  a  saint,  and  it  is  only  too  probable 
that  the  church  was  right. 

It  is  a  curious  illustration  of  the  determi- 
nation of  his  biographers  to  prove  him  an 
exceptionally  noble  man,  that  they  dwell 
with  much  emphasis  upon  his  stern  deter- 
mination not  to  undertake  any  explorations 
except  upon  his  own  extravagant  terms. 
To  the  unprejudiced  mind  his  conduct 
might  seem  that  of  a  shrewd  and  grasping 
man,  bent  upon  making  a  profitable  specu- 
lation. The  biographers,  however,  insist 
that  it  was  the  conduct  of  a  great  and  no- 
ble nature,  caring  for  nothing  except  geo- 


1474]      FIRST  PLANS  OF  EXPLORATION.          27 

graphical  discovery  and  the  conversion  of 
unlimited  heathen. 

About  this  time  Columbus  is  believed 
to  have  written  a  great  many  letters  to  va- 
rious people,  asking  their  candid  opinion 
upon  the  propriety  of  discovering  new  con- 
tinents or  new  ways  to  old  Asiatic  coun- 
tries. Paulo  Toscanelli,  of  Florence,  a 
leading  scientific  person,  sent  him,  in  an- 
swer to  one  of  his  letters,  a  map  of  the 
Atlantic  and  the  eastern  coast  of  Asia, 
which  displayed  a  bolder  imagination  than 
Columbus  had  shown  in  any  of  his  own 
maps,  and  which  so  delighted  him  that  he 
put  it  carefully  away,  to  use  in  case  his 
dream  of  exploration  should  be  realized. 
Toscanelli's  map  has  proved  to  be  of  much 
more  use  to  historians  than  it  was  to  Co- 
lumbus, for  the  letter  in  which  it  was  en- 
closed was  dated  in  the  year  1474,  and  it 
thus  gives  us  the  earliest  date  at  which  we 
can  feel  confident  Columbus  was  entertain- 
ing the  idea  of  his  great  voyage. 

How  long  Columbus  resided  at  Porto 
Santo  we  have  no  means  of  knowing ; 


28  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.        |>Et.  45 

neither  do  we  know  why  he  left  that  place. 
It  is  certain,  however,  that  he  returned  to 
Lisbon  either  before  or  very  soon  after  the 
accession  of  King  John  II.  to  the  Portu- 
guese throne,  an  event  which  took  place  in 
1481.  Meanwhile,  as  we  learn  from  one 
of  his  letters,  he  made^a  voyage  in  1477  to 
an  island  which  his  biographers  have  agreed 
to  call  Iceland,  although  Columbus  lacked 
inclination — or  perhaps  courage — to  call  it 
by  that  name.  He  says  he  made  the  voy- 
age in  February,  and  he  does  not  appear 
to  have  noticed  that  the  water  was  frozen. 
The  weak  point  in  his  narrative — provided 
he  really  did  visit  Iceland — is  his  omission 
to  mention  how  he  warmed  the  Arctic 
ocean  so  as  to  keep  it  free  of  ice  in  Feb- 
ruary. Had  he  only  given  us  a  descrip- 
tion of  his  sea-warming  method,  it  would 
have  been  of  inestimable  service  to  the 
people  of  Iceland,  since  it  would  have  ren- 
dered the  island  easily  accessible  at  all 
times  of  the  year,  and  it  would  also  have 
materially  lessened  the  difficulty  which  ex- 
plorers find  in  sailing  to  the  North  Pole. 


1481]      FIRST  PLANS   OF  EXPLORATION.          29 

It  is  probable  that  Columbus  visited  some 
warmer  and  easier  island  than  Iceland — 
say  one  of  the  Hebrides.  In  those  days  a 
voyage  from  southern  Europe  to  Iceland 
would  have  been  a  remarkable  feat,  and 
Columbus  would  not  have  failed  to  de- 
mand all  the  credit  due  him  for  so  bold  an 
exploit. 

The  immediate  predecessor  of  King  John 
—King  Alfonso — preferred  war  to  explo- 
ration, and  as  he  was  occupied  during  the 
latter  part  of  his  reign  in  a  very  interesting 
war  with  Spain,  it  is  improbable  that  Co- 
lumbus wasted  time  in  asking  him  to  fit 
out  a  transatlantic  expedition.  There  is  a 
rumor  that,  prior  to  the  accession  of  King 
John  II.,  Columbus  applied  to  Genoa  for 
assistance  in  his  scheme  of  exploration, 
but  the  rumor  rests  upon  no  evidence 
worth  heeding. 

Genoa,  as  every  one  knows,  was  then  a 
republic.  It  needed  all  its  money  to  pay 
the  expenses  of  the  administration  party  at 
elections,  to  improve  its  inland  harbors  and 
subterranean  rivers,  and  to  defray  the  cost 


30  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [JEt.  45 

of  postal  routes  in  inaccessible  parts  of  the 
country.  Had  Columbus  asked  for  an  ap- 
propriation, the  Genoese  politicians  would 
have  denounced  the  folly  and  wickedness  of 
squandering  the  people's  money  on  scien- 
tific junketing  expeditions,  and  would  have 
maintained  that  a  free  and  enlightened  re- 
public ought  not  to  concern  itself  with  the 
effete  and  monarchical  countries  of  Asia, 
to  which  Columbus  was  anxious  to  open 
a  new  route. 

Moreover,  Columbus  had  been  absent 
from  Genoa  for  several  years.  He  had  no 
claims  upon  any  of  the  Genoese  states- 
men, and  was  without  influence  enough  to 
carry  his  own  ward.  An  application  of 
any  sort  coming  from  such  a  man  would 
have  been  treated  with  deserved  contempt ; 
and  we  may  be  very  sure  that,  however 
much  Columbus  may  have  loved  the  old 
Genoese  flag  and  desired  an  appropriation, 
he  had  far  too  much  good  sense  to  dream  of 
asking  any  favors  from  his  fellow-country- 
men. Undoubtedly  he  was  as  anxious  to 
start  in  search  of  America  while  he  lived  at 


1481]      FIRST  PLANS  OF  EXPLORATION.          31 

Porto  Santo  as  he  was  at  a  later  period,  but 
he  knew  that  only  a  king  would  feel  at  lib- 
erty to  use  public  funds  in  what  the  public 
would  consider  a  wild  and  profitless  expe- 
dition ;  and  as  there  was  no  king  whom  he 
could  hope  to  interest  in  his  .scheme,  he 
naturally  waited  until  a  suitable  king  should 
appear. 

The  death  of  Alfonso  provided  him  with 
what  he  imagined  would  prove  to  be  a  king 
after  his  own  heart,  for  King  John  was  no 
sooner  seated  on  the  throne  than  he  be- 
trayed an  abnormal  longing  for  new  coun- 
tries by  sending  explorers  in  search  of 
Prester  John. 

This  Prester  John  was  believed  to  be 
a  Presbyterian  deacon  who  ruled  over  a 
civilized  and  Christian  kingdom  which  he 
kept  concealed  either  about  his  person  or 
in  some  out-of-the-way  part  of  the  world. 
The  wonderful  credulity  of  the  age  is  shown 
by  this  belief  in  a  Presbyterian  king  whom 
no  European  had  ever  seen,  and  in  a  king- 
dom of  which  no  man  knew  the  situation. 
It  ought  to  have  occurred  to  the  Portu- 


32  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [>Et.  45 

guese  king  that,  even  if  he  could  find  this 
mythical  monarch,  he  would  not  take  any 
real  pleasure  in  his  society,  unless  he  were 
to  burn  him.  King  John  II.  was  a  pious 
Roman  Catholic,  and,  next  to  a  Method- 
ist, a  Presbyterian  king  would  have  been 
about  the  most  uncongenial  acquaintance 
he  could  have  made.  Nevertheless,  this 
Presbyterian  myth  was  indirectly  of  great 
service  to  Columbus. 

King  John,  in  order  to  facilitate  his 
search  for  Prester  John,  asked  a  scientific 
commission  to  invent  some  improvements 
in  navigation,  the  result  of  which  was  the 
invention  of  the  astrolabe,  a  sort  of  rudi- 
mentary quadrant,  by. means  of  which  a 
navigator  could  occasionally  find  his  lati- 
tude. This  invention  was  hardly  inferior 
in  value  to  that  of  the  compass,  and  it  is 
generally  said  to  have  provided  Columbus 
with  the  means  of  finding  his  way  across 
the  Atlantic  and  back  to  Europe. 

Next  to  the  discovery  of  Prester  John, 
the  Portuguese  king  desired  to  discover  a 
route  by  sea  to  India.  He  believed  with 


1481-82]   FIRST  PLANS  OF  EXPLORATION.       33 

his  deceased  grand-uncle,  Prince  Henry, 
that  Africa  could  be  circumnavigated— 
provided  the  circumnavigators  could  avoid 
being  boiled  alive  south  of  Cape  Bojador 
—and  that  a  road  to  India  could  thus  be 
found.  It  was  manifest  that  he  was  just 
the  sort  of  monarch  for  Columbus's  pur- 
poses. He  was  so  anxious  to  make  dis- 
coveries that  he  would  have  been  delighted 
even  to  find  a  Presbyterian.  He  was  par- 
ticularly bent  upon  finding  a  route  to 
India,  and  he  was  only  twenty-five  years 
old.  He  was  the  very  man  to  listen  to 
a  solemn  and  oppressive  mariner  with  his 
pockets  full  of  maps  and  his  mind  full  of 
the  project  for  a  transatlantic  route  to  India. 
Columbus  was  now  about  forty-six  years 
old,  and  his  beard  was  already  white.  He 
had  dwelt  so  long  upon  the  plan  of  cross- 
ing the  Atlantic  that  he  resembled  the 
Ancient  Mariner  in  his  readiness  to  but- 
ton-hole all  sorts  of  people  and  compel 
them  to  listen  to  his  project.  Mrs.  Pere- 
strello  appears  to  have  been  safely  dead  at 
this  time,  and  Pedro  Correo  had  probably 


34  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.    [,£1.45-46 

been  talked  to  death  by  his  relentless 
brother-in-law.  Still,  Columbus  was  as 
'anxious  to  carry  out  his  plan  as  ever.  He 
marked  young  King  John  as  his  prey,  and 
finally  obtained  an  audience  with  him. 


CHAPTER   III. 

IN   SEARCH   OF   A   PATRON. 

WE  have  two  accounts  of  the  inter- 
view between  Columbus  and  the 
King — one  written  by  Fernando  Colum- 
bus, and  the  other  by  Juan  de  Barros,  an 
eminent  geographer.  Fernando  says  that 
the  King  listened  with  great  delight  to  the 
project  of  Columbus,  and  only  refrained 
from  instantly  giving  him  the  command 
of  an  expedition  because  he  did  not  feel 
ready  to  consent  to  Columbus's  conditions. 
De  Barros  says  that  King  John  finally 
professed  that  he  approved  of  Columbus's 
views  merely  to  get  rid  of  that  persistent 
mariner. 

However  this  may  be,  the  King  re- 
ferred the  whole  matter  to  a  committee, 
with  power  to  send  for  maps  and  things. 
The  committee  consisted  of  two  geog- 


36  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.    [^Et.  45-46 

raphers — who  of  course  hated  Columbus 
with  true  scientific  hatred — and  the  King's 
confessor,  the  Bishop  of  Ceuta.  It  did 
not  take  very  long  for  the  committee  to 
decide  that  Columbus  was  a  preposterous 
person,  and  that  his  project  was  impracti- 
cable. The  King  then  referred  the  matter 
to  his  council,  where  it  was  hotly  debated. 
The  Bishop  of  Ceuta  took  the  broad,  gen- 
eral ground  that  exploration  was  an  idle 
and  frivolous  occupation  ;  that  no  men  of 
sense  wanted  any  new  countries  ;  and  that 
if  the  King  must  have  amusement,  the 
best  thing  he  could  do  would  be  to  make 
war  upon  the  Moors. 

Don  Pedro  de  Meneses  replied  with 
much  vigor,  hurling  back  the  Bishop's 
accusations  against  exploration,  and  nail- 
ing his  reverence's  misstatements  as  boldly 
as  if  the  two  were  rival  Congressmen.  As 
for  himself,  Don  Pedro  said,  he  liked  new 
continents,  and  believed  that  Portugal 
could  not  have  too  many  of  them.  He 
considered  Columbus  a  great  man,  and 
felt  that  it  would  be  a  precious  privilege 


1482-84]       IN  SEARCH  OF  A   PATRON.  37 

for  other  people  to  aid  in  the  proposed 
transatlantic  scheme. 

Nevertheless,  the  council  decided  against 
it,  much,  we  are  told,  to  the  King's  disap- 
pointment. 

The  Bishop  of  Ceuta,  in  spite  of  his 
remarks  at  the  meeting  of  the  committee, 
evidently  thought  there  might  be  some- 
thing in  Columbus's  plan  after  all.  He 
therefore  proposed  to  the  King  that  Co- 
lumbus should  be  induced  to  furnish  writ- 
ten proposals  and  specifications  for  the 
discovery  of  transatlantic  countries,  and 
that  with  the  help  of  the  information  thus 
furnished  the  King  should  secretly  send 
a  vessel  to  test  the  practicability  of  the 
scheme.  This  was  done,  but  the  vessel 
returned  after  a  few  days,  having  discov- 
ered nothing  but  water. 

As  soon  as  Columbus  heard  of  this  trick 
he  became  excessively  angry,  and  resolved 
that  King  John  should  never  have  a  square 
foot  of  new  territory,  nor  a  solitary  hea- 
then soul  to  convert,  if  he  could  help  it. 
Accordingly,  he  broke  off  his  acquaint- 


38  CHRISTOPHER    COLUMBUS.    [.£1.46-48 

ance  with  the  King,  and  proposed  to  leave 
Lisbon,  in  the  mean  time  sending  his 
brother  Bartholomew  to  England  to  ask 
if  the  English  King  would  like  to  order  a 
supply  of  new  islands  or  a  transatlantic  con- 
tinent. His  wife  had  already  succumbed 
to  her  husband's  unremitting  conversation 
concerning  explorations,  and  died,  doubt- 
less with  much  resignation.  Madame 
Perestrello,  Pedro  Correo,  and  Mrs.  Co- 
lumbus were  probably  only  a  few  of  the 
many  unhappy  Portuguese  who  suffered 
from  the  fatal  conversational  powers  of 
Columbus,  and  Portugal  may  have  become 
rather  an  unsafe  place  for  him.  This  would 
account  for  the  stealthy  way  in  which  he 
left  that  kingdom,  and  is  at  least  as  prob- 
able as  the  more  common  theory  that  he 
ran  away  to  escape  his  creditors. 

It  was  in  the  year  1484  that  Columbus, 
accompanied  by  his  son  Diego,  shook  the 
dust  of  Portugal  from  his  feet  and  climbed 
over  the  back-fence  into  Spain,  in  the  dead 
of  night,  instead  of  openly  taking  the  reg- 
ular mail-coach.  The  King  of  England 


1484]  IN  SEARCH  OF  A   PATRON.  39 

had  refused  to  listen  to  Bartholomew's 
proposals,  and  King  John  had  been  guilty 
of  conduct  unbecoming  a  monarch  and  a 
gentleman.  This  may  have  given  Colum- 
bus a  prejudice  against  kings,  for  he  made 
his  next  applications  to  the  Dukes  of 
Medina  Sidonia  and  Medina  Celi — two 
noblemen  residing  in  the  south  of  Spain. 

Medina  Sidonia  listened  to  Columbus 
with  much  interest,  and  evidently  re- 
garded him  as  an  entertaining  kind  of 
lunatic ;  but  after  a  time  he  became  seri- 
ously alarmed  at  the  Italian's  inexhaustible 
capacity  for  talk,  and  courteously  got  rid 
of  him  before  sustaining  any  permanent 
injury.  The  Duke  of  Medina  Celi  was  a 
braver  man,  and  not  only  invited  Colum- 
bus to  come  and  stay  at  his  house,  but 
actually  spoke  of  lending  him  ships  and 
money.  He  changed  his  mind,  however, 
and  told  Columbus  that  he  really  could 
not  take  the  liberty  of  fitting  out  an  expe- 
dition which  ought  to  be  fitted  out  by  a 
king.  Columbus  then  remarked  that  he 
would  step  over  to  France  and  speak  to 


4O  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [j£t.  48 

the  French  King  about  it ;  whereupon  the 
Duke  hastily  wrote  to  Queen  Isabella,  of 
Castile  and  Aragon,  mentioning  that  he 
had  a  mariner  of  great  merit  in  his  house, 
whom  she  really  ought  to  see.  The  Queen 
graciously  wrote,  requesting  the  Duke  to 
forward  his  ancient  mariner  to  the  royal 
palace  at  Cordova,  which  he  accordingly 
did,  furnishing  Columbus  at  the  same  time 
with  a  letter  of  introduction  to  Her  Maj- 
esty. 

Spain  was  then  merely  a  geographical 
expression.  Ferdinand,  King  of. Aragon, 
had  recently  married  Isabella,  Queen  of 
Castile,  and  their  joint  property  was  called 
the  Kingdom  of  Castile  and  Aragon  ;  for, 
inasmuch  as  the  Moors  still  ruled  over  the 
southern  part  of  the  peninsula,  it  would 
have  been  indelicate  for  Ferdinand  and  his 
queen  to  pretend  that  they  were  the  mon- 
archs  of  all  Spain. 

When  Columbus  reached  Cordova  he 
found  that  their  majesties  were  on  the 
point  of  marching  against  the  Moors,  and 
had  no  time  to  listen  to  any  plans  of  ex- 


1484-87]       IN  SEARCH  OF  A   PA  TRON.  4! 

ploration.  Before  starting,  however,  the 
Queen  deposited  Columbus  with  Alonzo 
de  Quintanilla,  the  treasurer  of  Castile, 
and,  we  may  presume,  took  a  receipt  for 
him.  Quintanilla,  an  affable  old  gentle- 
man, was  much  pleased  with  Columbus, 
and  soon  became  a  warm  advocate  of  his 
theories.  He  introduced  the  navigator  to 
several  influential  friends,  and  Columbus 
passed  the  summer  and  winter  very  pleas- 
antly. 

At  Cordova  he  also  met  a  young  person 
named  Beatrix  Enriquez,  to  whom  he  be- 
came much  attached,  and  who  was  after- 
ward the  mother  of  his  son  Fernando. 
She  probably  had  her  good  qualities  ;  but 
as  Columbus  was  so  much  preoccupied 
with  his  transatlantic  projects  he  forgot  to 
marry  her,  and  hence  she  is  scarcely  the 
sort  of  young  person  to  be  introduced  into 
a  virtuous  biography. 

During  the  same  winter  the  King  and 
Queen  held  their  court  at  Salamanca,  after 
having  made  a  very  brilliant  foray  into  the 
Moorish  territory,  and  having  also  sup- 


42  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.    [>Et.  48-51 

pressed  a  rebellion  in  their  own  domin- 
ions. Columbus  went  to  Salamanca,  where 
he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Pedro  Gon- 
salvez  de  Mendoza,  the  Cardinal-Arch- 
bishop of  Toledo,  who  was  decidedly  the 
most  influential  man  in  the  kingdom. 
When  Columbus  first  mentioned  his  proj- 
ect, the  Cardinal  told  him  the  Scriptures 
asserted  that  the  earth  was  flat,  and  that  it 
would  be  impious  for  him  to  prove  it  was 
round ;  but  Columbus  soon  convinced  him 
that  the  Church  would  be  greatly  benefited 
by  the  discovery  of  gold-mines  all  ready  to 
be  worked,  and  of  heathen  clamoring  to 
be  converted,  and  thus  successfully  recon- 
ciled science  and  religion.  The  Cardinal 
heartily  entered  into  his  scheme,  and  soon 
obtained  for  him  an  audience  with  the 
King. 

Columbus  says  that  on  this  occasion  he 
spoke  with  an  eloquence  and  zeal  that  he 
had  never  before  displayed.  The  King  lis- 
tened with  great  fortitude,  and  when  Co- 
lumbus temporarily  paused  in  his  oration 
had  still  strength  enough  left  to  dismiss  him 


1484-87]       IN  SEARCH  OF  A   PA  TRON.  43 

with  a  promise  to  refer  the  matter  to  a 
scientific  council.  In  pursuance  of  this 
promise  he  directed  Fernando  de  Talavera, 
the  Queen's  confessor,  to  summon  the  most 
learned  men  of  the  kingdom  to  examine 
Columbus  thoroughly  and  decide  upon 
the  feasibility  of  his  plan.  As  for  the 
Queen,  she  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
present  at  the  audience  given  to  Columbus, 
either  because  her  royal  husband  considered 
the  female  mind  incapable  of  wrestling 
with  geography,  or  because  he  did  not 
think  her  strong  enough  to  endure  Colum- 
bus's  conversation. 

The  scientific  Congress  met  at  Sala- 
manca without  any  unnecessary  delay,  and 
as  few  people  except  priests  had  any  learn- 
ing whatever  at  that  period,  the  Congress 
consisted  chiefly  of  different  kinds  of 
priests.  They  courteously  gave  Columbus 
his  innings,  and  listened  heroically  to  his 
interminable  speech,  after  which  they  pro- 
ceeded to  demonstrate  to  him  that  he  was 
little  better  than  a  combined  heretic  and 
madman.  They  quoted  the  Bible  and  the 


44  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.    [JEt.  48-51 

opinions  of  the  Fathers  of  the  church  in 
support  of  the  theory  that  the  earth  was 
flat  instead  of  round. 

When  Columbus  in  his  turn  proved  that 
the  Bible  and  the  Fathers  must  be  under- 
stood in  a  figurative  sense,  the  priests  then 
took  the  ground  that  if  the  world  was 
round,  Columbus  could  not  carry  enough 
provisions  with  him  to  enable  him  to  sail 
around  it,  and  that  he  could  not  sail  back 
from  his  alleged  western  continent  unless 
his  vessels  could  sail  up-hill. 

Gradually  the  more  sensible  members  of 
the  congress  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
it  would  be  better  to  agree  to  everything 
Columbus  might  propose,  rather  than 
listen  day  after  day  to  his  appalling  elo- 
quence. Still,  the  majority  were  men  of 
ascetic  lives  and  great  physical  endurance, 
and  they  showed  no  disposition  to  yield  to 
argument  or  exhaustion.  The  sessions 
of  the  Congress  were  thus  prolonged 
from  day  to  day,  and  Columbus  was  kept 
in  a  painful  state  of  suspense.  Little  did 
he  imagine  that  in  the  land  which  he  was 


1484-87]       IN  SEARCH  OF  A    PATRON.  45 

destined  to  discover,  another  Congress 
would  meet,  not  quite  four  hundred  years 
later,  and  would  even  surpass  the  Congress 
of  Salamanca  in  the  tediousness  and  use- 
lessness  of  its  debates. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HE   RECEIVES    HIS   COMMISSION. 

THE  spring  of  1487  arrived,  and  the 
Council  of  Salamanca  had  not  yet 
made  its  report.  The  King  and  Queen, 
who  seem  to  have  required  an  annual 
Moorish  war  in  order  to  tone  up  their 
systems,  set  out  to  besiege  Malaga  early 
in  the  spring,  taking  De  Talavera  with 
them,  so  that  he  might  be  on  hand  to  con- 
fess the  Queen  in  case  she  should  find  it 
desirable  to  commit  a  few  sins  and  require 
subsequent  absolution.  The  departure 
of  De  Talavera  interrupted  the  sittings  of 
the  Council,  and  left  Columbus  without 
any  regular  occupation.  During  the  siege 
of  Malaga  he  was  more  than  once  sum- 
moned to  the  camp,  ostensibly  to  confer 
with  the  court  upon  his  famous  project, 
but  the  proposed  conferences  never  took 
place.  He  became  so  tired  of  the  sus- 


1489]       HE  RECEIVES  HIS  COMMISSION.          47 

pense  in  which  he  was  kept,  that  he  wrote 
to  King  John  of  Portugal,  giving  him  one 
more  chance  to  accede  to  his  transatlantic 
plans.  Not  only  did  King  John  answer  his 
letter  and  ask  him  to  come  to  Lisbon,  but 
King  Henry  VII.  of  England  also  wrote 
to  him,  inviting  him  to  come  to  England 
and  talk  the  matter  over.  At  least,  Co- 
lumbus says  that  those  two  kings  wrote  to 
him ;  though  the  fact  that  he  did  not  ac- 
cept their  invitations,  but  preferred  to 
waste  his  time  in  Spain,  casts  a  little  doubt 
upon  his  veracity.  It  is  certainly  improba- 
ble that  he  would  have  waited  for  years  in 
the  hope  of  another  interview  with  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabella,  if  at  the  same  time  two 
prominent  kings  were  writing  to  him  and 
urging  him  to  bring  his  carpet-bag  and 
make  them  a  nice  long  visit. 

In  the  spring  of  1489  Columbus  was 
summoned  to  Seville,  and  was  positively 
assured  that  this  time  he  should  have  a 
satisfactory  conference  with  a  new  assort- 
ment of  learned  men.  But  no  sooner  had 
he  reached  Seville  than  the  King  and 


48  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [&t.  53 

Queen  suddenly  remembered  that  they 
had  not  had  their  usual  spring  war,  and 
thereupon  promptly  started  to  attack  the 
Moors.  Columbus  went  with  them,  and 
fought  with  great  gallantry.  Probably  it 
was  in  some  measure  due  to  a  dread  of  his 
awful  conversational  powers  that  the  Moor- 
ish king  surrendered,  and  it  is  to  the  honor 
of  the  Christian  monarchs  that  they  did 
not  abuse  their  victory  by  permitting  Co- 
lumbus to  talk  to  the  royal  prisoner. 

Another  year  passed  away,  and  sti-li 
Columbus  was  waiting  for  a  decision  upon 
the  feasibility  of  his  plan.  In  the  spring 
of  1491  he  finally  became  so  earnest  ki 
demanding  a  decision,  that  the  King  di- 
rected De  Talavera  and  his  learned  friends 
to  make  their  long-delayed  report.  They 
did  so,  assuring  the  King  that  it  would  be 
absurd  for  him  to  waste  any  money  what- 
ever in  attempting  to  carry  out  the  Italian's 
utterly  ridiculous  plan.  Still  Ferdinand 
did  not  care  to  drive  Columbus  to  despair, 
but  politely  informed  him  that  after  he 
should  have  finished  the  annual  Moorish 


I4QI]       HE  RECEIVES  HIS  COMMISSION.          49 

war  upon  which  he  was  just  about  to 
enter,  he  would  really  try  to  think  of  the 
propriety  of  fitting  out  an  expedition. 

Columbus  had  now  been  nearly  seven 
years  in  Spain,  waiting  for  the  King  to 
come  to  a  final  decision  ;  and  this  last  post- 
ponement exhausted  his  patience.  The 
court  had  from  time  to  time  supplied  him 
with  money ;  but  he  was  not  willing  to 
spend  his  life  as  a  pensioner  on  the  royal 
bounty,  while  the  western  continent  was 
vainly  calling  to  him  to  come  over  and  dis- 
cover it.  He  therefore  left  Seville,  with 
the  resolution  to  have  nothing  further  to  do 
with  Spain,  but  to  proceed  to  France  and 
try  what  he  could  do  with  the  French  king. 

He  seems  to  have  journeyed  on  foot, 
for  the  very  next  time  we  hear  of  him  is 
as  a  venerable  and  imposing  tramp,  accom- 
panied by  an  unidentified  small-boy,  and 
asking  for  food — presumably  buckwheat 
cakes,  and  eggs  boiled  precisely  three  min- 
utes— at  the  gate  of  the  convent  of  Santa 
Maria  de  Rabida. 

The  Prior  of  the  convent,  Juan  Perez 


SO  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [>Et.  55 

de  Marchena,  happened  to  notice  him,  and 
entered  into  conversation  with  him.  Co- 
lumbus told  him  his  name,  and  mentioned 
that  he  was  on  his  way  to  a  neighboring 
town  to  find  his  brother-in-law ;  from 
which  we  learn  that  four  hundred  years 
ago  the  myth  of  a  brother-in-law  in  the 
next  town  was  as  familiar  to  the  tramps 
of  that  period  as  it  is  to  those  of  the 
present  day.  As  the  Prior  listened  to  this 
story  without  making  any  remarks  upon 
its  improbability,  Columbus  was  tempted 
to  launch  into  general  conversation,  and 
in  a  few  moments  told  him  all  about  his 
desire  to  find  a  transatlantic  continent,  and 
his  intention  of  offering  to  the  King  of 
France  the  privilege  of  assisting  him. 

Doubtless  the  good  friar  found  his  con- 
vent life  rather  monotonous,  and  perceiv- 
ing vast  possibilities  of  conversation  in 
Columbus,  he  determined  to  ask  him  to 
spend  the  night  with  him.  Columbus,  of 
course,  accepted  the  invitation,  and,  the 
Prior  sending  for  the  village  doctor,  the 
three  spent  a  delightful  evening. 


1491]       HE  RECEIVES  HIS  COMMISSION.  5 1 

The  next  day  both  the  Prior  and  the 
doctor  agreed  that  Columbus  was  really  a 
remarkable  man,  and  that  it  would  be  dis- 
graceful if  the  French  king  were  to  be 
allowed  to  assist  in  discovering  a  new  con- 
tinent. The  Prior  sent  for  several  ancient 
mariners  residing  in  the  neighboring  port 
of  Palos,  and  requested  them  to  give  their 
opinion  of  the  matter.  With  one  accord, 
they  supported  the  scheme  of  Columbus 
with  arguments  the  profundity  of  which 
Captain  Bunsby  himself  might  have  envied ; 
and  one  Martin  Alonzo  Pinzon,  in  particu- 
lar, was  so  enthusiastic  that  he  offered  to 
pay  the  expenses  of  Columbus  while  mak- 
ing another  application  to  the  court,  and 
to  furnish  and  take  command  of  a  vessel 
in  case  the  application  should  be  successful. 

The  religious  interests  of  the  convent 
must  have  suffered  somewhat  from  the 
Prior's  geographical  soirees.  It  must 
have  required  a  great  deal  of  punch  to 
bring  those  ancient  seafaring  men  into  una- 
nimity upon  any  subject,  and  the  extent 
to  which  Columbus  unquestionably  availed 


$2  CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS.         |>Et,  55 

himself  of  the  opportunity  for  unrestrained 
conversation  must  have  left  the  Prior  no 
time  whatever  for  prayers.  He  may  have 
excused  himself  to  his  own  conscience  by 
pretending  that  to  listen  to  Columbus  was 
a  means  of  mortifying  the  flesh ;  but, 
plausible  as  this  excuse  was,  it  could  not 
justify  the  introduction  of  punch,  seafaring 
men,  and  village  doctors  into  a  professedly 
religious  house. 

The  upshot  of  the  matter  was,  that  the 
Prior  resolved  to  write  a  letter  to  the 
Queen,  and  old  Sebastian  Rodriguez,  a 
veteran  sailor,  staked  the  future  integrity 
of  his  personal  eyes  upon  his  delivery  of 
the  letter  into  the  hands  of  Isabella.  The 
Prior  had  been  formerly  the  Queen's  con- 
fessor, and  of  course  he  knew  how  to 
awaken  her  interest  by  little  allusions  to 
the  sinful  secrets  that  she  had  committed 
to  his  holy  keeping. 

The  letter  was  written,  and  in  two  weeks' 
time  Rodriguez  brought  back  an  answer 
summoning  the  Prior  to  court.  The  good 
old  man  was  overjoyed,  and  immediately 


1491-92]  HE  RECEIVES  HIS  COMMISSION.          $3 

went  to  Santa  F£,  where  the  King  and 
Queen  were  stopping,  on  their  way  to 
another  Moorish  war.  When  he  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Queen's  presence,  he  con- 
ducted himself  with  so  much  discretion, 
and  made  so  favorable  an  impression,  that 
Isabella  gave  him  the  magnificent  sum  of 
twenty  thousand  maravedies,  and  told  him 
to  hand  it  over  to  Columbus,  and  to  send 
that  persistent  navigator  immediately  to 
her.  It  is  somewhat  of  a  disappointment 
to  learn  that  the  twenty  thousand  marave- 
dies were  in  reality  worth  only  seventy-two 
dollars ;  still  they  were  enough  to  enable 
Columbus  to  buy  a  mule  and  a  new  spring 
overcoat,  and  thus  to  appear  at  court  in 
an  impressive  manner. 

The  particular  Moorish  war  upon  which 
the  King  and  Queen  were  then  engaged 
was  the  very  last  one  of  the  series,  and  it 
was  confessedly  of  so  much  importance 
that  Columbus  did  not  try  to  obtain  an 
audience  until  it  was  finished.  In  the 
mean  time  he  lived  with  his  old  friend 
Alonzo  de  Quintanella,  the  treasurer. 


54  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.    [y£t.  55-56 

At  last  the  day  came  when,  the  war 
being  ended,  Columbus  was  summoned  to 
meet  a  committee  of  which  De  Talavera 
appears  to  have  been  the  chairman.  This 
time  the  feasibility  of  his  scheme  was  ad- 
mitted, and  it  only  remained  to  settle  the 
terms  upon  which  he  would  agree  to  fur- 
nish Spain  with  new  continents.  Though 
Columbus  expected  to  reach  the  eastern 
coast  of  Asia  by  crossing  the  Atlantic,  that 
part  of  Asia  was  so  wholly  unknown  to 
Europeans,  that  its  discovery  by  means  of 
a  transatlantic  voyage  would  have  enabled 
the  discoverer  to  take  possession  of  it  as  a 
new  continent ;  and  it  was  hence  quite 
proper  for  Columbus  to  speak  of  discover- 
ing a  new  world  when  he  was  really  intend- 
ing to  discover  the  eastern  half  of  what  we 
now  call  the  Old  world. 

It  is  all  very  well  to  have  a  good  opinion 
of  one's  self,  but  Columbus  really  did  put 
what  seems  to  unprejudiced  people  a  tre- 
mendous price  upon  his  services.  Not 
only  did  he  demand  one  tenth  of  whatever 
profits  might  be  derived  from  his  dis- 


1491-92]  HE  RECEIVES  HIS  COMMISSION.  55 

coveries,  but  he  insisted  that  he  should  be 
made  an  admiral,  and  viceroy  over  every 
country  that  he  might  discover.  One  of  the 
committee  justly  remarked  that  -the  pro- 
posed arrangement  was  one  by  which  Co- 
lumbus had  everything  to  gain  and  nothing 
to  lose,  and  that  if  he  made  no  discoveries 
whatever  he  would  still  be  a  Spanish  admi- 
ral, and  would  outrank  scores  of  deserving 
officers  who  had  spent  their  lives  in  the 
service  of  their  country.  Columbus  there- 
upon modified  his  terms  by  consenting  to 
take  only  an  eighth  of  the  profits,  and  to 
furnish  one  eighth  of  the  expenses. 

It  so  happened  that  some  member  of 
the  committee  knew  that  one  eighth  was 
more,  instead  of  less,  than  one  tenth.  We 
need  not  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  com- 
mittee reported  that  the  terms  proposed 
were  inadmissible.  De  Talavera  told  the 
Queen  that  he  had  met  with  a  good  deal  of 
"cheek"  in  his  time,  but  the  cheek  of  Co- 
lumbus was  positively  monumental,  and 
that  nature  designed  him  not  for  an  ex- 
plorer but  for  a  life-insurance  agent. 


$6  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.    [JEt.  55-56 

The  result  was  that  the  Queen  decided 
to  have  no  more  to  do  with  the  affair,  and 
Columbus,  in  a  tremendous  rage,  climbed 
upon  his  mule  and  rode  out  of  Santa  Fe, 
remarking  that  he  wouldn't  discover  a  con- 
tinent for  the  Spanish  monarchs  if  conti- 
nents were  as  thick  as  blackberries.  He 
furthermore  declared  that  he  would  go 
straight  to  France  and  make  a  contract 
with  the  French  king,  and  that  the  Span- 
iards would  never  cease  to  regret  their 
short-sighted  economy. 

As  the  extremity  of  the  Columbian  mule 
vanished  through  the  city  gate,  Luis  de  St. 
Angel,  treasurer  of  the  Church  funds  of  the 
kingdom  of  Aragon,  and  the  much-suffer- 
ing Quintanella — who  did  not  believe  that 
Columbus  would  really  go  to  France,  and 
were  convinced  that  the  true  way  in  which 
to  be  permanently  rid  of  him  was  to  send 
him  on  his  proposed  expedition — hastened 
to  the  palace,  and  told  the  monarchs  that 
they  were  risking  the  loss  of  a  new  conti- 
nent because  they  were  afraid  to  risk  two 


1491-92]  HE  RECEIVES  HIS  COMMISSION.          $? 

ships  and  a  comparatively  small  sum  of 
money,  and  because  they  hesitated  to  give 
the  title  of  Admiral  to  an  explorer  who,  if 
he  did  not  succeed,  would  in  all  probability 
never  return  to  Spain. 

The  Queen  was  much  impressed  by  this 
straightforward  statement  of  facts,  and  ad- 
mitted that  she  would  like  to  employ  Co- 
lumbus upon  his  own  terms.  The  King, 
instead  of  saying,  "  Certainly,  my  dear ;  do 
so,  by  all  means !"  began  to  speak  of  the 
emptiness  of  the  treasury  and  the  necessity 
for  economy.  Of  course  this  made  Isa- 
bella indignant,  and  she  rose  up  and  ex- 
claimed, "  I  will  undertake  the  enterprise 
in  behalf  of  Castile,  and  will  raise  the 
money  if  I  have  to  pawn  my  jewels." 

Quintanella  and  St.  Angel  applauded 
this  resolution,  and  the  latter  offered  to 
advance  the  necessary  money  without  any 
security  whatever.  Inasmuch  as  the  money 
in  St.  Angel's  hands  belonged  to  Aragon, 
this  was  a  remarkably  neat  way  of  saddling 
the  whole  expense  upon  King  Ferdinand's 


5§  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.    |>Et.  55-56 

private  dominions ;  and  there  are  few  ladies 
who  will  not  concede  that  it  served  the 
King  right. 

A  messenger  was  at  once  sent  to  recall 
Columbus,  and  that  astute  person,  grimly 
smiling  at  the  success  of  his  threat  to  go 
to  France,  prevailed  upon  his  mule  to  turn 
back  and  reenter  Santa  Fe\  He  was  im- 
mediately given  an  audience  with  the 
Queen,  and  a  contract  was  drawn  up  in 
which  his  utmost  demands  were  recog- 
nized. He  was  to  have  a  tenth  of  every- 
thing, and  to  rank  with  the  High  Admiral 
of  Castile,  while  instead  of  his  being  re- 
quired to  contribute  an  eighth  of  the  cost 
of  the  expedition,  it  was  simply  specified 
that  he  might  make  such  a  contribution  if 
he  should  feel  so  inclined.  The  contract 
was  signed  on  the  i7th  of  April,  1492,  and 
Columbus's  commission  as  Admiral  and 
Viceroy  was  immediately  made  out  and 
given  to  him. 

From  1474  to  1492,  or  precisely  eigh- 
teen years,  Columbus  had  been  seeking 
for  assistance  to  cross  the  Atlantic.  Dur- 


1492]         HE  RECEIVES  HIS  COMMISSION.  59 

ing  that  entire  period  he  was  without 
money,  without  any  visible  means  of  sup- 
port, and  without  powerful  friends.  Never- 
theless, he  finally  obtained  from  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella  a  full  compliance  with  de- 
mands that  to  nearly  every  Spaniard  seemed 
wildly  preposterous.  To  what  did  he  owe 
his  success?  It  seems  very  plain  that  it 
must  have  been  due  to  his  unparalleled 
powers  of  conversation.  We  know  that 
most  of  those  persons  with  whom  he  was 
on  familiar  terms  when  he  first  conceived 
his  scheme  soon  died,  and  the  inference  that 
they  were  talked  to  death  is  irresistible. 
Beyond  any  doubt,  these  were  only  a  few  of 
his  victims.  Columbus  talked  in  Portugal 
until  he  was  compelled  to  fly  the  kingdom, 
and  he  talked  in  Spain  until  the  two 
monarchs  and  a  few  other  clear-headed 
persons  felt  that  if  he  could  be  got  out  of 
the  country  by  providing  him  with  ships, 
money,  and  titles,  it  must  be  done.  We 
can  readily  understand  why  the  news  that 
he  was  actually  about  to  leave  Spain,  and 
to  undertake  a  voyage  in  the  course  of 


60  CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  56 

which  it  was  universally  believed  he  would 
be  drowned,  was  received  by  the  Spaniards 
with  unanimous  delight.  Women  wept 
tears  of  joy,  and  strong  men  went  into 
secluded  corners  and  stood  on  their  heads 
in  wild  hilarity.  The  day  of  their  deliver- 
ance was  at  hand,  and  the  devastating 
career  of  the  terrible  talker  was  nearly  at 
an  end. 


CHAPTER  V. 

HE    IS   COMMISSIONED,    AND    SETS    SAIL. 

ON  the  1 2th  of  May,  1492,  Columbus 
left  Santa  Fe"  for  Palos,  the  seaport 
from  which  his  expedition  was  to  sail. 
He  left  his  small-boy,  Diego,  behind  him, 
as  page  to  Prince  Juan,  the  heir  of  Castile 
and  Aragon.  Diego  was  the  son  of  his 
lawful  wife,  and  it  is  pleasant  to  find  that, 
in  spite  of  this  fact,  Columbus  still  remem- 
bered him.  His  favorite  son  was  of  course 
Fernando,  who,  with  his  mother,  Beatrix, 
seems  to  have  been  sent  away  to  board  in 
the  country  during  Columbus's  absence  at 
sea. 

As  soon  as  he  arrived  at  Palos,  Colum- 
bus called  on  his  worthy  friend  the  Prior, 
and  on  the  next  day  the  two  went  to  the 
church  of  St.  George,  where  the  royal 
order  directing  the  authorities  of  Palos  to 
supply  Columbus  with  two  armed  ships, 


62  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  56 

and  calling  upon  everybody  to  furnish  the 
expedition  with  all  necessary  aid,  was  read 
aloud  by  a  notary-public.  The  authorities, 
as  well  as  the  other  inhabitants  of  Palos, 
were  naturally  only  too  glad  to  do  every- 
thing in  their  power  to  hasten  the  departure 
of  Columbus;  but  it  was  found  extremely 
difficult  to  procure  ships  or  sailors  for  the 
expedition.  The  merchants  very  justly 
said  that,  much  as  they  might  desire  to 
have  Columbus  drowned,  they  did  not  care 
to  furnish  ships  at  their  own  expense  for 
an  enterprise  in  the  interest  of  all  classes 
of  the  community.  The  sailors  declared 
that  they  were  ready  to  ship  for  any  voyage 
which  might  be  mentioned,  but  that  it  was 
a  little  too  much  to  ask  them  to  go  to  sea 
with  Columbus  as  their  captain,  since  he 
would  undoubtedly  use  his  authority  to 
compel  them  to  listen  to  a  daily  lecture  on 
"Other  Continents  than  Ours,"  thus  ren- 
dering their  situation  far  worse  than  that 
of  ordinary  slaves. 

The  King  and  Queen,  learning  of  the 
failure  of  Columbus  to  obtain  ships  and 


1492]  HE  IS  COMMISSIONED.  63 

men,  and  fearing  that  he  might  return  to 
court,  ordered  the  authorities  of  Palos  to 
seize  eligible  vessels  by  force,  and  to  kid- 
nap enough  sailors  to  man  them.  This 
would  probably  have  provided  Columbus 
with  ships  and  men,  had  not  the  short- 
sighted monarch  appointed  one  Juan  de 
Penalosa  to  see  that  the  order  was  exe- 
cuted, and  promised  him  two  hundred  ma- 
ravedies  a  day  until  the  expedition  should 
be  ready.  De  Penalosa  was  perhaps  not 
the  intellectual  equal  of  the  average 
American  office-holder,  but  he  had  sense 
enough  to  appreciate  his  situation,  and  of 
course  made  up  his  mind  that  it  would 
take  him  all  the  rest  of  his  natural  life  to 
see  that  order  carried  out.  Accordingly, 
he  drew  his  pay  with  great  vigor  and  faith- 
fulness, but  could  not  find  any  ships  which, 
in  his  opinion,  were  fit  to  take  part  in  the 
proposed  expedition.  The  people  soon 
perceived  the  state  of  affairs,  and  de- 
spaired of  ever  witnessing  the  departure 
of  Columbus. 

Doubtless  De  Penalosa  would  have  gone 


64  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         |>Et.  56 

on  for  years  failing  to  find  the  necessary 
ships,  had  not  two  noble  mariners  resolved 
to  sacrifice  themselves  on  the  altar  of  their 
country.  Martin  Alonzo  Pinzon  and  Vin- 
cente  Yanez  Pinzon,  his  brother,  were  the 
two  marine  patriots  in  question.  They 
offered  a  ship  and  crew,  and  the  magis- 
trates, emulating  their  patriotism,  seized 
two  other  ships  and  ordered  them  to  be 
fitted  for  service. 

These  vessels  were  under  one  hundred 
tons'  burthen  each,  and  only  one  of  them, 
the  Santa  Maria,  was  decked  over.  In 
model  they  resembled  the  boats  carved  by 
small  inland  boys,  and  their  rig  would 
have  brought  tears  to  the  eyes  of  a  modern 
sailor — provided,  of  course,  a  way  of 
bringing  a  modern  sailor  to  Palos  to  in- 
spect them  could  have  been  devised.  If 
we  can  put  any  faith  in  woodcuts,  the 
Santa  Maria  and  her  consorts  were  two- 
masted  vessels  carrying  one  or  two  large 
square  sails  on  each  mast,  and  remotely 
resembling  dismasted  brigs  rigged  with 
jury-masts  by  some  passengers  from  In- 


1492]  HE  IS  COMMISSIONED.  65 

diana  who  had  studied  rigging  and  seaman- 
ship in  Sunday-school  books.  The  pre- 
tence that  those  vessels  could  ever  beat  to 
windward  cannot  be  accepted  for  a  mo- 
ment. They  must  have  been  about  as  fast 
and  weatherly  as  a  St.  Lawrence  "pin  flat," 
and  in  point  of  safety  and  comfort  they 
were  even  inferior  to  a  Staten  Island 
ferry-boat. 

The  Pinta  was  commanded  by  Martin 
Pinzon,  and  the  Nina  by  Vincente  Pin- 
zon.  No  less  than  four  pilots  were  taken, 
though  how  four  pilots  could  have  been 
equally  divided  among  three  ships  without 
subjecting  at  least  one  pilot  to  a  subdi- 
vision that  would  have  seriously  impaired 
his  efficiency,  can  not  readily  be  compre- 
hended. Indeed,  no  one  has  ever  satisfac- 
torily explained  why  Columbus  wanted 
pilots,  when  he  intended  to  navigate  utterly 
unknown  seas.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
he  had  bound  himself  not  to  talk  to  an 
intemperate  extent  to  his  officers  or  men, 
and  that  he  laid  in  a  supply  of  private 
pilots  purely  for  the  purpose  of  talking  to 


66  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [^Et.  56 

them.  It  is  much  more  probable  that  a 
law  of  compulsory  pilotage  existed  at  that 
time  in  Spain, — for  it  was  a  dark  and 
ignorant  age, — and  that,  inasmuch  as  Co- 
lumbus would  have  had  to  pay  the  pilots 
whether  he  took  them  with  him  or  not,  he 
thought  he  might  as  well  accept  their  ser- 
vices. Besides,  he  may  have  remem- 
bered that  a  vessel  rarely  runs  aground 
unless  she  is  in  charge  of  a  pilot,  and  hence 
he  may  have  imagined  that  pilots  pos- 
sessed a  peculiar  skill  in  discovering  unex- 
pected shores  at  unlooked-for  moments, 
and  might  materially  help  him  in  discover- 
ing a  new  continent  by  running  the  fleet 
aground  on  its  coast. 

A  royal  notary  was  also  sent  with  the 
expedition,  so  that  if  any  one  should  sud- 
denly desire  to  swear  or  affirm,  as  the  case 
might  be,  it  could  be  done  legally.  The 
three  vessels  carried  ninety  sailors,  and  the 
entire  expeditionary  force  consisted  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  men. 

The  ship  -  carpenters  and  stevedores, 
doubtless  at  the  instigation  of  Pefialosa, 


1492]  HE  IS  COMMISSIONED.  6j 

made  all  the  delay  they  possibly  could, 
and  at  the  last  moment  a  large  number  of 
sailors  deserted.  Other  sailors  were  pro- 
cured, and  finally  everything  was  in  readi- 
ness for  the  departure  of  the  fleet.  On 
Friday  the  3d  of  August,  1492,  Columbus 
and  his  officers  and  men  confessed  them- 
selves and  received  the  sacrament,  after 
which  the  expedition  put  to  sea. 

In  spite  of  the  knowledge  that  Colum- 
bus was  actually  leaving  Spain  with  a  very 
slight  prospect  of  ever  returning,  the  de- 
parture of  the  ships  cast  a  gloom  over 
Palos.  The  people  felt  that  to  sacrifice 
one  hundred  and  nineteen  lives,  with  three 
valuable  vessels,  was  a  heavy  price  to  pay, 
even  for  permanently  ridding  Spain  of  the 
devastating  talker.  Still,  we  are  not  told 
that  they  permitted  sentiment  to  over- 
power their  patriotism,  and  they  were  pro- 
bably sustained  by  the  reflection  that  it 
was  better  that  one  hundred  and  nineteen 
other  people  should  be  drowned,  than  that 
they  themselves  should  be  talked  to  death. 

It  is  universally  agreed  that  it  is  impos- 


68  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [JEt.  56 

sible  not  to  admire  the  courage  displayed 
by  Columbus  and  his  associates.  The 
ships  of  the  expedition  were  small  and 
unseaworthy.  They  were  not  supplied 
with  ice-houses,  hot  water,  electric  bells, 
saloons  amidships  where  the  motion  is 
least  perceptible,  smoking  and  bath  rooms, 
or  any  of  the  various  other  devices  by 
which  the  safety  of  modern  steamships  is 
secured.  The  crew  knew  that  they  were 
bound  to  an  unknown  port,  and  that  if 
their  vessels  managed  to  reach  it  there 
was  no  certainty  that  they  would  find  any 
rum.  Columbus  had  employed  eighteen 
years  in  convincing  himself  that  if  he  once 
set  sail  he  would  ultimately  arrive  some- 
where ;  but  now  that  he  was  finally  afloat, 
his  faith  must  have  wavered  somewhat. 
As  he  was  an  excellent  sailor,  he  could 
not  but  have  felt  uncomfortable  when  he 
remembered  that  he  had  set  sail  on  Fri- 
day. However,  he  professed  to  be  in  the 
very  best  of  spirits,  and  no  one  can  deny 
that  he  was  as  brave  as  he  was  tedious. 
On  the  third  day  out,  the  Pinta  unship- 


1492]  HE  IS  COMMISSIONED.  69 

ped  her  rudder,  and  soon  after  began  to 
leak  badly.  Her  commander  made  shift 
partially  to  repair  the  disaster  to  the  rud- 
der, but  Columbus  determined  to  put  into 
the  Canaries,  and  charter  another  vessel 
in  her  place.  He  knew  that  he  was  then 
not  far  from  the  Canaries,  although  the 
pilots,  either  because  their  minds  were 
already  weakening  under  the  strain  of 
their  commander's  conversation,  or  be- 
cause they  were  ready  to  contradict  him 
at  every  possible  opportunity,  insisted  that 
the  islands  were  a  long  way  off.  Colum- 
bus was  right,  and  on  the  gth  of  August 
they  reached  the  Canaries,  where  we  may 
suppose  the  pilots  were  permitted  to  go 
ashore  and  obtain  a  little  rest. 

For  three  weeks  Columbus  waited  in 
hopes  of  finding  an  available  ship,  but  he 
was  disappointed.  The  Pmfa  was  there- 
fore repaired  to  some  extent,  and  the  Nina 
was  provided  with  a  new  set  of  sails.  A 
report  here  reached  Columbus  that  three 
Portuguese  men-of-war  were  on  their  way 
to  capture  him — doubtless  on  the  charge 


7O  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [>Et.  56 

of  having;  compassed  the  death  of  several 
Portuguese  subjects  with  violent  and  pro- 
longed conversation.  He  therefore  set 
sail  at  once,  and  as  he  passed  the  volcano, 
which  was  then  in  a  state  of  eruption,  the 
crews  were  so  much  alarmed  that  they  were 
on  the  point  of  mutiny.  Columbus,  how- 
ever, made  them  a  speech  on  the  origin, 
nature,  and  probable  object  of  volcanoes, 
which  soon  reduced  them  to  the  most  ab- 
ject state  of  exhaustion. 

Nothing  was  seen  of  the  Portuguese  men- 
of-war,  and  it  has  been  supposed  that  some 
practical  joker  alarmed  the  Admiral  by 
filling  his  mind  with  visions  of  hostile  ships, 
when  the  only  Portuguese  men-of-war  in 
that  part  of  the  Atlantic  were  the  harmless 
little  jelly-fish  popularly  known  by  that 
imposing  title. 

It  was  the  6th  day  of  September  when 
the  expedition  left  the  Canaries,  but  owing 
to  a  prolonged  calm  it  was  not  until  the 
9th  that  the  last  of  the  islands  was  lost 
sight  of.  We  can  imagine  what  the  de- 
voted pilots  must  have  suffered  during 


1492]  HE  IS   COMMISSIONED.  /I 

those  three  days  in  which  Columbus  had 
nothing  to  do  but  talk ;  but  they  were 
hardy  men,  and  they  survived  it.  They 
remarked  to  one  another  that  they  could 
die  but  once  ;  that  care  had  once  killed  a 
vague  and  legendary'  cat ;  and  in  various 
other  ways  tried  to  reconcile  themselves  to 
their  fate. 

The  crew  on  losing  sight  of  land  became, 
so  we  are  told,  utterly  cast  down,  as  they 
reflected  upon  the  uncertainty  of  ever  again 
seeing  a  Christian  grog-shop,  or  joining 
with  fair  ladies  in  the  cheerful  fandango. 
Mr.  Irving  says  that  "  rugged  seamen  shed 
tears,  and  some  broke  into  loud  lamenta- 
tion," and  that  Columbus  thereupon  made 
them  a  long  speech  in  order  to  reconcile 
them  to  their  lot.  The  probability  is  that 
Mr.  Irving  reversed  the  order  of  these  two 
events.  If  Columbus  made  a  long  speech 
to  his  crew,  as  he  very  likely  did,  there  is 
no  doubt  that  they  shed  tears,  and  lament- 
ed loudly. 

Lest  the  crew  should  be  alarmed  at  the 
distance  they  were  rapidly  putting  between 


72  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS,         [JEt.  56 

themselves  and  the  spirituous  liquors  of 
Spain,  Columbus  now  adopted  the  plan  of 
daily  falsifying  his  reckoning.  Thus  if  the 
fleet  had  sailed  one  hundred  miles  in  any 
given  twenty-four  hours,  he  would  an- 
nounce that  the  distance  sailed  was  only  sixty 
miles.  Meanwhile  he  kept  a  private  log- 
book, in  which  he  set  down  the  true  courses 
and  distances  sailed.  This  system  may 
have  answered  its  purpose,  but  had  the 
fleet  been  wrecked,  and  had  the  false  and 
the  true  log-books  both  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  underwriters,  Columbus  would 
not  have  recovered  a  dollar  of  insurance, 
and  would  probably  have  been  indicted  for 
forgery  with  attempt  to  lie.  The  lawyer 
for  the  insurance  company  would  have  put 
in  evidence  the*  two  entries  for,  let  us  say, 
the  loth  of  September ;  the  one  reading, 
"Wind  E.S.E.,  light  and  variable  ;  course 
W.  by  N.  ;  distance  by  observation  since 
noon  yesterday,  61  miles;"  and  the  other, 
or  true  entry,  reading,  "Wind  E.S.E.  ; 
course  W.  by  N.  ;  distance  by  observa- 
tion since  noon  yesterday,  1 1 7  miles.  At 


1492]  HE   IS   COMMISSIONED.  73 

seven  bells  in  the  morning  watch,  furled 
main-top-gallant  sails,  and  put  a  single  reef 
in  all  three  topsails.  This  day  ends  with  a 
strong  easterly  gale."  With  such  evidence 
as  this,  he  would  easily  have  proved  that 
Columbus  was  a  desperate  villain,  who  had 
wrecked  his  vessels  solely  to  swindle  the 
insurance  companies.  Thus  we  see  that 
dishonesty  will  vitiate  the  best  policy,  pro- 
vided the  underwriters  can  prove  it. 

It  was  perhaps  this  same  desire  to  lead 
his  crew  into  the  belief  that  the  voyage 
would  not  be  very  long,  which  led  Colum- 
bus to  insert  in  the  sailing  directions  given 
to  the  two  Pinzons  an  order  to  heave-to 
every  night  as  soon  as  they  should  have 
sailed  seven  hundred  leagues  west  of  the 
Canaries.  He  explained  that  unless  this 
precaution  were  taken  they  would  be  liable 
to  run  foul  of  China  in  the  night,  in  case 
the  latter  should  not  happen  to  have  lights 
properly  displayed.  This  was  very  thought- 
ful, but  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  it 
deceived  the  Pinzons.  They  knew  per- 
fectly well  that  Columbus  had  not  the  least 


74  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [>Et.  56 

idea  of  the  distance  across  the  Atlantic, 
and  they  probably  made  remarks  to  one 
another  in  regard  to  the  difficulty  of  catch- 
ing old  birds  with  chaff,  which  the  Admi- 
ral would  not  have  enjoyed  had  he  heard 
them. 

Thus  cheerfully  cheating  his  sailors,  and 
conversing  with  his  pilots,  Columbus  en- 
tered upon  his  voyage.  A  great  many 
meritorious  emotions  are  ascribed  to  him 
by  his  biographers,  and  perhaps  he  felt  sev- 
eral of  them.  We  have,  however,  no  evi- 
dence on  this  point,  and  the  probability  is 
that  he  would  not  have  expressed  any  feel- 
ing but  confidence  in  his  success  to  any 
person.  He  had  long  wanted  to  sail  in 
quest  of  new  continents,  and  his  wish  was 
now  gratified.  He  ought  to  have  been  con- 
tented, and  it  is  quite  possible  that  he  was. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    VOYAGE. 

IN  those  days  everybody  supposed  that 
the  needle  always  pointed  due  north. 
Great  was  the  astonishment  of  Columbus 
when,  a  few  days  after  leaving  the  Cana- 
ries, he  noticed  what  is  now  called  the  vari- 
ation of  the  compass.  Instead  of  point- 
ing to  the  north,  the  needle  began  to 
point  somewhat  to  the  west  of  north  ; 
and  the  farther  the  fleet  sailed  to  the  west, 
the  greater  became  the  needle's  variation 
from  the  hitherto  uniform  direction  of  all 
respectable  needles.  Of  course  Columbus 
at  first  supposed  that  his  compass  was  out 
of  order,  but  he  soon  found  that  every  com- 
pass in  the  fleet  was  conducting  itself  in  the 
same  disreputable  way.  The  pilots  also 
noticed  the  startling  phenomenon,  and  said 
it  was  just  what  they  had  expected.  In  seas 
so  remote  from  the  jurisdiction  of  Spain, 


7$  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [Ml.  56 

who  could  expect  that  the  laws  of  Nature 
would  be  observed  ?  They  did  not  like  to 
grumble,  but  still  they  must  say  that  it  was 
simply  impious  to  sail  in  regions  where 
even  the  compass  could  not  tell  the  truth. 
But  Columbus  was  not  the  man  to  be  put 
to  confusion  by  remarks  of  this  kind.  He 
calmly  told  the  pilots  that  the  compass  was 
all  right ;  it  was  the  North  Star  that  was 
wrong,  and  he  never  had  felt  much  conft 
dence  in  that  star,  anyway.  Then  inviting 
the  pilots  to  come  down  into  his  cabin 
and  take  a  little — well,  lunch,  he  explained 
to  them  with  such  profound  unintelligi- 
bility  the  astronomical  habits  and  customs 
of  the  North  Star,  that  they  actually  be- 
lieved his  explanation  of  the  variation  of 
the  compass.  There  are  those  who  hold 
that  Columbus  really  believed  the  North 
Star  was  leaving  its  proper  place  ;  but  the 
theory  does  gross  injustice  to  the  splendid 
mendacity  of  the  Admiral.  The  man  who 
could  coolly  assert  that  if  his  compass  dif- 
fered from  the  stars  the  latter  were  at  fault, 
deserves  the  wonder  and  admiration  of 


1492]  THE    VOYAGE.  77 

even  the  most  skilful  editor  of  a  campaign 
edition  of  an  American  party  organ. 

The  sailors  would  probably  have  grum- 
bled a  good  deal  about  the  conduct  of 
the  compass  had  they  noticed  it ;  but  it 
does  not  appear  that  they  had  any  sus- 
picion that  it  had  become  untrustworthy. 
Besides,  the  fleet  was  now  fairly  in  the 
trade-wind,  and  very  little  labor  was  re- 
quired in  the  management  of  the  vessels. 
The  sailors,  having  little  to  do,  were  in 
good  spirits,  and  began  to  see  signs  of 
land.  A  large  meteor  was  seen  to  fall  into 
the  sea,  and  soon  after  a  great  quantity  of 
sea-weed  was  met,  among  which  tunny- 
fish  made  their  home.  The  Admiral  also 
caught  a  small  crab.  Crabs,  tunny-fish, 
sea-weed,  and  meteors  must  have  been,  in 
those  days,  exclusively  products  of  the 
land ;  otherwise,  there  was  no  reason  why 
Columbus  and  his  men  should  have  re- 
garded them  as  proofs  of  the  vicinity  of 
land.  They  did,  however,  meet  with  a 
bird  of  a  variety — so  the  oldest  mariners 
asserted — that  never  sleeps  except  on  a 


?8  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [JEt.  56 

good  substantial  roosting-place.  This  really 
did  give  them  some  reason  to  imagine  that 
land  was  not  very  far  off;  but  as  the  result 
showed,  the  bird  was  painfully  untrust- 
worthy. 

Day  after  day  the  so-called  signs  of  land 
were  seen.  A  large  reward  was  offered  to 
the  first  person  who  should  see  the  sought- 
for  continent,  and  consequently  everybody 
was  constantly  pretending  that  a  distant 
cloud  or  fog-bank  was  land,  and  then  find- 
ing fault  with  the  Admiral  because  he 
would  not  change  his  course.  One  day 
a  pair  of  boobies — a  bird  singularly  mis- 
named, in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  rarely 
flies  out  of  sight  of  land — rested  in  the 
rigging.  Another  day  three  birds  of  a 
kind — which,  every  one  knows,  were  even 
better  than  two  pairs— came  on  board 
one  of  the  ships  in  the  morning,  and  flew 
away  again  at  night,  and  it  was  the  uni- 
versal opinion  that  they  sang  altogether 
too  sweetly  for  sea-birds ;  the  voices  of  the 
gull,  the  stormy  petrel,  and  the  albatross 
being  notoriously  far  from  musical. 


I4Q2]  THE   VOYAGE.  79 

After  a  time  these  signs  ceased  to  give 
the  crews  any  comfort.  As  they  forcibly 
observed,  "What  is  the  use  of  all  your 
signs  of  land,  so  long  as  you  don't  fetch 
on  your  land  ?"  They  became  convinced 
that  the  sea  was  gradually  becoming 
choked  up  with  sea-weed,  and  that  the 
fact  that  the  surface  of  the  water  re- 
mained unruffled,  although  there  was  a 
steady  breeze  from  the  east,  was  proof 
that  something  was  seriously  wrong.  We 
now  know  that  the  expedition  was  in  the 
Sargasso  Sea,  a  region  of  sea-weed  and 
calms,  and  that  in  point  of  fact  Columbus 
was  lucky  in  not  being  becalmed  for  a 
year  or  two  without  any  means  of  bring- 
ing his  vessels  to  a  more  breezy  region. 
This,  however,  he  did  not  know,  and  he 
explained  the  quiet  of  the  sea  by  asserting 
that  the  fleet  was  already  in  the  lee  of  the 
unseen  land. 

The  men  nevertheless  continued  to  be 
discontented,  and  declined  any  longer  to 
believe  that  land  was  near.  Even  the 
sight  of  a  whale — which,  as  every  one 


8O  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  56 

knows,  is  a  land  animal — failed  to  raise 
their  spirits,  although  Columbus  told  them 
that,  now  that  he  had  seen  a  whale,  he 
knew  they  must  be  very  near  the  shore. 
The  sailors  would  not  listen  to  his  argu- 
ment, and  openly  insulted  his  whale.  They 
said  he  had  brought  them  to  a  region 
where  the  wind  either  blew  steadily  from 
the  east  or  scarcely  blew  at  all ;  in  either 
case  opposing  an  insuperable  obstacle  to 
sailing  back  to  Spain,  for  which  reason, 
with  the  charming  consistency  of  sailors, 
they  wanted  to  turn  back  immediately 
and  steer  for  Palos.  Still,  they  did  not 
break  into  open  mutiny,  but  confined 
themselves  to  discussing  the  propriety  of 
seizing  the  vessels,  throwing  Columbus 
overboard,  and  returning  to  Spain,  where 
they  could  account  for  the  disappearance 
of  the  Admiral  by  asserting  that  he  had 
been  pushed  overboard  by  the  cat,  or  had 
been  waylaid,  robbed,  and  murdered  by 
the  James  boys ;  or  by  inventing  some 
other  equally  plausible  story.  Happily, 
the  wind  finally  sprang  up  again,  and  the 


1492]  THE   VOYAGE.  8 1 

sailors,  becoming  more  cheerful,  postponed 
their  mutiny. 

The  typical  biographer  always  begs  us 
to  take  notice  that  Columbus  must  have 
been  a  very  great  man,  for  the  reason  that 
he  prosecuted  his  great  voyage  in  spite  of 
the  frequent  mutinies  of  the  sailors ;  and 
as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  Columbus  was 
troubled  by  mutinies  during  other  voy- 
ages than  his  first  one.  At  the  present 
day,  however,  the  ability  of  a  sea-captain 
would  not  be  estimated  by  the  number  of 
times  his  crew  had  mutinied.  If  Colum- 
bus was  really  an  able  commander,  how 
did  it  happen  that  he  ever  allowed  a  mu- 
tiny to  break  out  ?  Very  likely  his  flag- 
ship was  short  of  belaying-pins  and  hand- 
spikes, but  did  not  the  Admiral  wear  a 
sword  and  carry  pistols  ?  and  was  he  not 
provided  with  fists  and  the  power  to  use 
them  ?  Instead  of  going  on  deck  at  the 
first  sign  of  mutinous  conduct  on  the  part 
of  any  one  of  the  crew,  and  striking  terror 
and  discipline  into  the  offender  with  the 
first  available  weapon,  he  seems  to  have 


82  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [>Et.  56 

waited  quietly  in  the  cabin  until  the  sailors 
had  thrown  off  all  authority,  and  then  to 
have  gone  on  deck  and  induced  them  to 
resume  work  by  delivering  a  lecture  on 
geography  and  the  pleasures  of  explora- 
tion. But  we  should  remember  that  he 
was  in  command  of  Spanish  vessels,  and 
that  Spanish  views  of  seamanship  and  dis- 
cipline are  peculiar. 

On  the  25th  of  September,  Martin  Pin- 
zon,  whose  vessel  happened  to  be  within 
hailing  distance  of  Columbus,  suddenly 
shouted  that  he  saw  land  in  the  south- 
west, and  wanted  that  reward.  The  al- 
leged land  rapidly  became  clearly  visible, 
and  seemed  to  be  a  very  satisfactory  piece 
of  land,  though  it  was  too  far  off  to  show 
any  distinctively  Japanese,  Chinese,  or  East 
Indian  features.  Columbus  immediately 
called  his  men  together,  made  a  prayer, 
and  ordered  them  to  sing  a  psalm.  The 
fleet  then  steered  toward  the  supposed 
land,  which  soon  proved  to  be  an  exas- 
perating fog-bank,  whereupon  the  sailors 
unanimously  agreed  that  Columbus  had 


I4Q2]  THE   VOYAGE.  83 

trifled  with  the  holiest  feelings  of  their 
nature,  and  that  they  could  not,  with  any 
self-respect,  much  longer  postpone  the 
solemn  duty  of  committing  his  body  to 
the  deep. 

About  this  time  a  brilliant  idea  occurred 
to  the  Pinzons.  It  was  that  the  true  direc- 
tion in  which  to  look  for  land  was  the 
south-west,  and  that  Columbus  ought  to 
give  orders  to  steer  in  that  direction.  As 
they  had  no  conceivable  reason  for  this  be- 
lief, and  could  advance  no  argument  what- 
ever in  support  of  it,  they  naturally  adhered 
to  it  with  great  persistency.  Columbus 
declined  to  adopt  their  views — partly  be- 
cause they  were  the  independent  views  of 
the  Pinzons,  and,  as  is  well  known,  no 
subordinate  officer  has  any  right  to  inde- 
pendent views,  and  partly  because  they 
were  entirely  worthless.  The  Pinzons 
were  therefore  compelled  to  console  them- 
selves by  remarking  that  of  course  the 
Admiral  meant  well,  but  they  were  sadly 
afraid  he  was  a  grossly  incompetent  dis- 
coverer. On  the  7th  of  October  the  spirits 


84  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.  [y£t.  56 

of  the  sailors  were  temporarily  raised  by  a 
signal  from  the  Nina,  which  was  a  short 
distance  in  advance,  announcing  that  land 
was  positively  in  sight.  This  also  proved 
to  be  a  mistake,  and  doubts  began  to  be 
entertained  as  to  whether,  in  case  land 
should  be  discovered,  it  would  wait  for 
the  fleet  to  come  up  with  it,  or  would 
melt  away  into  invisibility. 

Although  Columbus  would  not  change 
his  course  at  the  request  of  the  Pinzons, 
he  now  announced  that  he  had  seen  sev- 
eral highly  respectable  birds  flying  south- 
west, and  that  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to 
follow  them.  This  may  have  pleased  the 
Pinzons,  but  it  did  not  satisfy  the  sailors. 
They  came  aft  to  the  sacred  precincts  of 
the  quarter-deck,  and  informed  Columbus 
that  they  were  going  home.  Unhappy 
men !  The  Admiral  instantly  began  a 
speech  of  tremendous  length,  in  which  he 
informed  them  that  he  should  continue 
the  voyage  until  land  should  be  reached, 
no  matter  how  long  it  might  last.  The 


1492]  THE  VOYAGE.  8$ 

more  the  men  clamored,  the  more  per- 
sistently Columbus  continued  his  speech, 
and  the  result  was  that  they  finally  went 
back  to  their  quarters,  exhausted  and  quite 
unable  to  carry  out  their  intention  of 
throwing  him  overboard. 

The  very  next  morning  a  branch  of  a 
thorn-bush;  a  board  which  had  evidently 
been  subjected  to  the  influences  of  some 
sort  of  saw-mill,  and  a  stick  which  bore 
the  marks  of  a  jack-knife,  floated  by. 
There  could  be  no  doubt  now  that  land 
was  near  at  last,  and  the  mutinous  sailors 
became  cheerful  once  more. 

It  was  certainly  rather  odd  that  those 
branches,  boards,  and  sticks  happened  to 
come  in  sight  just  at  the  moment  when 
they  were  needed  to  revive  the  spirits 
of  the  men,  and  that  during  the  entire 
voyage,  whenever  a  bird,  a  whale,  a  meteor, 
or  other  sign  of  land  was  wanted,  it  always 
promptly  appeared.  Columbus  expresses 
in  his  journal  the  opinion  that  this  was 
providential,  and  evidently  thought  that, 


86  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          |>Et.  56 

on  the  whole,  it  was  a  handsome  recog- 
nition of  his  transcendent  merits.  Con- 
cerning this  we  are  not  required  to  give 
any  decision. 

The  wind  blew  freshly  from  the  east, 
and  the  fleet  sailed  rapidly  before  it.  In 
the  evening  Columbus  fancied  that  he  saw 
a  light,  which  he  assumed  to  be  a  lantern 
in  the  hands  of  some  one  on  land.  He 
called  the  attention  of  a  sailor  to  it,  who 
of  course  agreed  with  his  commander  that 
the  light  was  a  shore  light.  At  about  two 
o'clock  on  the  following  morning — the 
1 2th  of  October — a  sailor  on  board  the 
Pinta,  named  Rodrigo  de  Triana,  posi- 
tively saw  land — this  time  without  any 
postponement. 

Most  of  us  have  been  taught  to  believe 
that  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  was 
signalized  by  the  joyful  cry  of  "  Land  ho  ! 
from  the  Pinta"  A  little  reflection  will 
show  the  gross  impossibility  that  this  ex- 
clamation was  ever  made  by  anybody 
connected  with  the  expedition.  In  the 
first  place,  "  Land  ho  !  from  the  Pin  fa"  is 


1492]  THE   VOYAGE.  8/ 

an  English  sentence,  and,  so  far  as  is 
known,  neither  Columbus  nor  any  of  his 
officers  or  men  knew  a  word  of  English. 
Then  the  expression  would  have  been 
meaningless.  What  was  "  Land  ho  !  from 
the  Pintcf  ?  and  why  should  the  sailors 
have  referred  to  vague  and  unintelligible 
land  of  that  nature,  when  their  thoughts 
were  fixed  on  the  land  which  lay  on  the 
near  horizon  ?  Obviously  this  story  is 
purely  mythical,  and  should  no  longer  have 
a  place  in  history. 

As  soon  as  it  was  certain  that  land  was 
in  sight,  the  fleet  hove-to  and  waited  for 
daylight.  The  voyage  was  ended  at  last. 
Columbus  was  about  to  set  foot  on  trans- 
atlantic soil,  and  the  sailors  were  full  of 
hope  that  the  rum  of  the  strange  land 
would  be  cheap  and  palatable.  Perhaps 
the  only  unhappy  man  on  board  the  fleet 
was  Rodrigo  de  Triana,  who  first  saw  the 
land  but  did  not  receive  the  promised  re- 
ward ;  Columbus  appropriating  it  to  him- 
self, on  the  ground  that,  having  fancied 
he  saw  a  hypothetical  lantern  early  in  the 


88  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  56 

evening,  he  was  really  the  first  to  see  land, 
and  had  honestly  and  fairly  earned  the 
reward.  Let  us  hope  that  he  enjoyed  it, 
and  felt  proud  whenever  he  thought  of  his 
noble  achievement. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    DISCOVERY. 

WHEN  the  day  dawned,  an  island  was 
seen  to  be  close  at  hand,  and  the  de- 
sire to  go  ashore  was  so  keen  that  in  all 
probability  little  attention  was  paid  to 
breakfast.  The  officers  put  on  all  their 
best  clothes,  and  Columbus  and  the  two 
Pinzons,  each  bearing  flags  with  appro- 
priate devices,  entered  the  boats  and  were 
rowed  ashore.  What  were  considered  ap- 
propriate devices  to  be  borne  on  banners 
such  as  were  used  on  the  occasion  of  the 
landing  of  Columbus,  we  do  not  know,  the 
historians  having  forgotten  to  describe 
the  banners  with  minuteness.  Perhaps 
"Heaven  bless  our  Admiral"  and  "Cuba 
Libre"  were  the  so-called  appropriate 
devices. 

The  natives,  assuming  that  Columbus 
and  his  companions  had  a  brass  band  with 


90  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [JEt.  56 

them,  which  would  begin  to  play  when  the 
boats  should  reach  the  shore,  precipitately 
fled,  and  concealed  themselves.  As  soon 
as  he  landed,  Columbus  threw  himself  on 
his  knees,  kissed  the  earth,  and  recited  a 
prayer.  He  then  took  possession  of  the 
island  in  due  form,  and  announced  that  it 
was  called  San  Salvador ;  though  how  he 
had  thus  early  discovered  its  name  we 
are  not  told.  Everybody  was  then  made 
to  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  Columbus 
as  Viceroy,  in  the  presence  of  the  notary 
whom  he  had  so  thoughtfully  brought  with 
him. 

Business  being  thus  properly  attended 
to,  the  sailors  were  allowed  to  amuse  them- 
selves by  tasting  the  strange  fruits  which 
they  saw  before  them,  and  by  searching 
earnestly  but  without  success  for  a  wine- 
shop. 

The  natives  gradually  took  courage  and 
approached  the  strangers,  whom  they  de- 
cided to  be  emigrants  from  heaven.  Co- 
lumbus smiled  sweetly  on  them,  and  gave 
them  beads,  pocket-knives,  pin-cushions, 


1492]  THE  DISCOVERY.  Ql 

back  numbers  of  the  Illustrated  London 
News,  and  other  presents  such  as  are  popu- 
larly believed  to  soothe  the  savage  breast. 
As,  however,  they  did  not  seem  to  appre- 
ciate the  Admiral's  speeches,  and  as  the 
sailors  could  find  no  rum,  the  order  was 
given  to  return  to  the  ships.  The  natives 
thereupon  launched  their  canoes  and  pad- 
dled out  to  the  vessels  to  return  the  visit  of 
the  Spaniards.  They  brought  with  them 
specimens  of  a  novel  substance  now  known 
as  cotton,  and  a  few  small  gold  ornaments, 
which  created  much  enthusiasm  among  the 
sailors.  The  Admiral  promptly  proclaimed 
that  gold,  being  a  royal  monopoly,  he  only 
had  the  right  to  buy  it,  and  that,  in  view  of 
the  immense  importance  which  he  foresaw 
that  cotton  would  assume  in  dressmaking 
and  other  industries,  he  should  conduct 
the  cotton  speculations  of  that  expedition 
himself.  As  the  natives,  when  the  conver- 
sation turned  upon  gold,  mentioned  that, 
though  there  was  no  gold  in  San  Salvador, 
the  islands  farther  south  were  full  of  it, 
Columbus  only  waited  to  lay  in  wood  and 


92  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  56 

water,  improving  the  time  by  a  boat  expe- 
dition along  the  coast,  and  then  set  sail 
in  search  of  fresh  discoveries. 

During  the  next  few  days  a  number  of 
small  islands  were  discovered,  all  of  which 
were  flowing  with  copper-colored  natives 
and  wild  fruit,  but  they  did  not  appear 
to  produce  gold.  The  natives  were  in  all 
cases  amiable  and  full  of  respect  for  the 
supposed  heavenly  visitors,  but  they  stoutly 
denied  that  they  had  any  gold.  Indeed, 
had  they  been  questioned  about  chills  and 
fever,  instead  of  gold,  they  could  not  have 
been  more  unanimous  in  asserting  that 
their  particular  island  was  entirely  free 
from  it,  but  that  it  abounded  in  the  next 
island  farther  south. 

All  these  islands  belonged  to  the  Bahama 
group,  but  Columbus  assumed  that  they 
were  in  the  neighborhood  of  Japan,  and 
that  the  mainland  of  Asia  must  be  within 
a  few  days'  sail.  As  soon  therefore  as  the 
sameness  of  constantly  discovering  new 
islands  began  to  pall  upon  him,  he  set  sail 
for  Cuba,  where,  as  the  natives  told  him, 


1492]  THE  DISCOVERY.  93 

there  was  a  king  whose  commonest  arti- 
cles of  furniture  were  made  of  gold.  He 
thought  it  would  be  well  to  visit  this  de- 
serving monarch,  and  buy  a  few  second- 
hand tables  and  bedsteads  from  him,  and 
then  to  sail  straight  to  Asia;  and  so  ac- 
complish the  real  purpose  of  his  voyage. 

It  is  a  pity  that  we  are  not  told  whether 
the  natives  talked  Spanish,  or  whether  Co- 
lumbus spoke  the  copper-colored  language. 
When  so  many  discussions  on  the  subject 
of  gold  were  had,  it  is  evident  that  some- 
body must  have  made  rapid  progress  in 
learning  one  language  or  the  other,  and 
from  what  we  know  of  the  Admiral's  con- 
versational powers,  it  is  quite  probable  that 
he  mastered  the  San  Salvadorian  grammar 
and  spelling-book,  and  was  able  to  read, 
write,  and  speak  the  language  within  the 
first  twenty-four  hours  after  landing. 

On  the  28th  of  October  Columbus 
reached  Cuba,  having  picked  up  a  host  of 
small  islands  on  the  way.  He  was  delight- 
ed with  its  appearance,  and  decided  that, 
instead  of  being  an  island,  it  must  be  the 


94  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [>Et.  56 

mainland.  For  days  he  coasted  along  the 
shore,  frequently  landing  and  examining 
the  deserted  huts  from  which  the  inhabi- 
tants had  fled  on  his  approach.  Judging 
from  the  entries  made  by  Columbus  in  his 
journal,  there  was  never  such  another 
island  since  the  world  began  ;  but  he  is 
compelled  to  admit  that  the  natives  were 
not  sociable.  In  fact,  he  never  exchanged 
words  with  them  until  the  interpreter  whom 
he  had  brought  from  San  Salvador  threw 
himself  overboard  and  swam  ashore.  The 
natives,  regarding  him  as  less  ferocious  and 
dangerous  than  a  boat,  permitted  him  to 
land,  and  listened  to  his  account  of  the 
Spaniards.  They  were  even  induced  to 
launch  their  canoes  and  visit  the  ships, 
where  they  were  received  by  Columbus, 
who  assured  them  that  he  had  no  connec- 
tion with  the  Emperor  of  China — a  state- 
ment which  must  have  struck  them  as 
somewhat  irrelevant  and  uncalled  for. 

The  place  where  this  interview  was  held 
is  now  known  as  Savanna  la  Mar.  The 
harbor  being  a  safe  one,  Columbus  de- 


1492]  THE  DISCOVERY.  95 

cided  to  remain  and  repair  his  ships,  and 
to  send  an  embassy  by  land  to  Pekin, 
which  he  was  confident  could  not  be  more 
than  two  days'  journey  into  the  interior. 
Two  Spaniards  and  the  San  Salvadorian 
native  were  selected  as  ambassadors,  and 
supplied  with  a  letter  and  presents  for  the 
Chinese  Emperor,  and  Columbus  with 
much  liberality  gave  them  six  days  in 
which  to  go  to  Pekin  and  return. 

After  they  had  departed,  the  ships  were 
careened  and  caulked,  and  other  little  jobs 
were  invented  to  keep  the  men  out  of  mis- 
chief. As  to  gold,  the  natives  told  the 
old  story.  There  was  none  of  it  in  their 
neighborhood,  but  there  was  an  island 
farther  south  where  it  was  as  common 
and  cheap  as  dirt.  Seeing  how  the  de- 
scription pleased  the  Admiral,  they  kindly 
threw  in  a  tribe  of  natives  with  one  eye 
in  their  forehead,  and  a  quantity  of  select 
cannibals,  and  thus  increased  his  desire  to 
visit  so  remarkable  an  island. 

In  six  days  the  ambassadors  returned. 
They  had  found  neither  Pekin  nor  the 


96  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [>Et.  56 

Chinese  Emperor — nothing,  in  fact,  ex- 
cept a  small  village,  a  naked  chief,  and  a 
community  of  placid  savages  who  had  no 
gold  and  were  entirely  devoid  of  interest. 
They  brought  back  with  them  a  few  cold 
potatoes,  a  vegetable  hitherto  unknown  to 
Europeans,  and  they  casually  mentioned 
that  they  had  seen  natives  in  the  act  of 
smoking  rolls  of  dark-colored  leaves,  but 
they  attached  no  importance  to  the  dis- 
covery, and  regarded  it  as  a  curious  evi- 
dence of  pagan  degradation.  Little  did 
they  know  that  the  dark-colored  leaves 
were  tobacco,  and  that  the  natives  were 
smoking  Partagas,  Villar  -  y  -  Villar,  In- 
timidads,  and  other  priceless  brands  of 
the  Vuelt  Abajo.  The  sailors  were  curs- 
ing the  worthlessness  of  a  new  continent 
which  produced  neither  rum,  wine,  nor 
beer,  and  yet  it  was  the  native  land  of 
tobacco  !  Thus  does  poor  fallen  human 
nature  fix  its  gaze  on  unattainable  rum 
and  Chinese  Emperors,  and  so  overlook 
the  cigars  that  are  within  its  reach, 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

ADVENTURES    ON     LAND. 

ON  the  1 2th  of  November  Columbus 
set  sail  in  search  of  the  gold-  and 
cannibal-bearing  island  described  by  the  na- 
tives and  called  Babeque.  He  took  with 
him  a  few  pairs  of  Cubans  for  the  Madrid 
Zoological  Garden,  whom  he  intended  to 
convert  to  Christianity  in  his  leisure  hours. 
Babeque  was  said  to  be  situated  about 
east-by-south  from  Cuba,  and  accordingly 
the  fleet  steered  in  that  direction,  skirting 
the  Cuban  coast.  Two  days  later  a  head- 
wind and  a  heavy  sea  induced  Columbus 
to  put  back  to  Cuba,  where  he  waited  for 
a  fair  wind.  On  the  igth  he  again  put  to 
sea,  but  was  soon  compelled  for  the  second 
time  to  return. 

When  Martin  Alonzo  Pinzon,  on  board 
the  Pinta,  which  was  in  the  advance,  saw 
the  Admiral's  signal  of  recall,  he  promptly 


98  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [>Et.  56 

and  with  great  energy  paid  no  attention 
to  it.  He  astutely  observed  that  as  there 
might  not  be  gold  and  cannibals  enough 
in  Babeque  for  the  whole  fleet,  it  would 
save  trouble  if  he  were  to  take  in  private- 
ly a  full  cargo,  and  thus  avoid  the  hard 
feelings  which  might  result  from  an  at- 
tempt to  divide  with  the  crews  of  the 
other  vessels.  Pinzon  therefore  kept  the 
Pinta  on  her  course,  and  the  next  morn- 
ing she  was  out  of  sight  of  the  flag-ship. 
Columbus,  not  understanding  the  excel- 
lent intentions  of  his  subordinate,  was 
greatly  vexed,  and  feared  that  Pinzon 
would  sail  back  to  Spain  and  claim  the 
whole  credit  of  discovering  the  New 
World.  However,  pursuit  was  out  of  the 
question,  the  Pinta  being  the  fastest  vessel 
of  the  fleet ;  and  the  Admiral  therefore 
sailed  back  to  Cuba,  and  while  awaiting  a 
change  of  wind  renewed  his  exploration 
of  the  coast 

On  the  5th  of  December,  the  weather 
having  improved,  Columbus  started  for 
the  third  time  in  search  of  Babeque.  He 


1492]  ADVENTURES  ON  LAND.  99 

soon  sighted  a  large  and  beautiful  island, 
at  which  his  Cubans  besought  him  not  to 
land,  since  it  was  inhabited  by  one-eyed 
cannibals  who  made  it  a  point  to  eat  all 
visitors,  either  from  motives  of  hunger  or 
as  a  mark  of  respect.  The  Cubans  admit- 
ted that  the  island  contained  gold  as  well 
as  cannibals,  but  maintained  that  it  was 
not  Babeque,  but  Bohio. 

Of  course  Columbus  disregarded  their 
advice,  and,  after  anchoring  for  a  night  in 
a  convenient  harbor,  proceeded  to  sail 
along  the  coast,  landing  from  time  to 
time.  He  found  that  it  was  a  very  re- 
spectable island,  but  the  natives  refused 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  him,  and  fled 
into  the  forest  as  soon  as  his  boats  touched 
the  shore.  One  day,  however,  his  men 
succeeded  in  capturing  a  young  woman — 
with  the  usual  amount  of  eyes,  and  fash- 
ionably dressed  in  a  gold  nose-ring — 
whom  they  carried  before  the  Admiral. 
The  latter,  putting  on  a  pair  of  thick 
blue  goggles  in  the  interests  of  propriety, 
spoke  kindly  to  the  young  person,  and 


IOO  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [>Et.  56 

gave  her  some  clothes.  It  may  be  doubt- 
ed whether  the  Admiral's  old  coats  and 
trousers  were  particularly  becoming  to  the 
fair  prisoner ;  but  as  they  were  novelties  in 
dress,  she  was  greatly  pleased  with  them, 
and  agreed  to  accompany  a  party  of  mjd- 
dle-aged  and  discreet  sailors  to  her  father's 
village.  Thus  friendly  relations  were  at 
last  established  with  the  natives,  and  Co- 
lumbus, seeing  the  effect  of  clothing  on 
the  female  mind,  was  so  closely  reminded 
of  the  women  of  Spain  that  he  named  the 
new  island  Hispaniola. 

The  absence  of  both  gold  and  one-eyed 
cannibals  convinced  him  that  Hispaniola 
could  not  be  Babeque,  and  on  December 
1 4th  he  once  more  set  sail  in  search  of 
that  mythical  island.  He  found  nothing 
but  the  little  island  of  Tortugas,  and  was 
finally  compelled  by  head-winds  to  sail 
back  to  Hispaniola.  He  now  made  up 
his  mind  that  Babeque  was  the  Mrs. 
Harris  of  islands,  and  that  in  fact  there 
was  no  such  place.  It  pained  him  to  give 
up  all  hope  of  seeing  the  one-eyed  canni- 


1492]  ADVENTURES 


bals  ;  but  after  all  he  must  have  perceived 
that,  even  if  he  had  found  them,  they 
could  not  have  been  any  real  comfort  to 
him,  unless  he  could  have  seen  them  sit- 
ting down  to  dine  off  the  faithless  Pinzon. 
On  the  1  6th  of  December  we  find  him 
anchored  near  Puerto  de  Paz,  enjoying  the 
society  of  a  cacique,  or  native  chief,  who 
told  him  the  old,  old  story  of  gold-bearing 
islands  farther  south,  and  in  other  ways 
did  his  best  to  meet  the  Admiral's  views. 
Six  days  later,  when  near  the  Bay  of  Acul, 
the  flag-ship  was  met  by  a  canoe  contain- 
ing an  envoy  of  the  cacique  Guacanagari, 
the  most  powerful  of  the  native  chiefs  of 
that  region.  Guacanagari  sent  Columbus 
presents  of  cotton  cloth,  dolls,  parrots  of 
great  resources  in  point  of  profanity,  and 
other  welcome  articles.  He  invited  Co- 
lumbus to  visit  him  at  his  palace,  which 
invitation  was  accepted,  and  the  cacique 
and  the  Admiral  became  warm  friends. 
A  few  bits  of  gold  were  given  to  the 
Spaniards,  and  the  usual  story  concerning 
Babeque  was  told  ;  but  Columbus  had 


IO2  CHRISTOPHER    COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  56 

now  pledged  himself  to  total  abstinence 
from  Babeque  in  every  form,  and  paid  no 
attention  to  it. 

Guacanagari's  village  was  situated  a  few 
miles  east  of  the  Bay  of  Acul,  and  thither 
Columbus  resolved  to  bring  his  ships. 
About  midnight  on  Christmas  eve  Co- 
lumbus went  below,  because,  as  he  al- 
leged, there  was  a  dead  calm  and  his 
presence  on  deck  was  not  required.  The 
judicial  mind  will,  however,  note  the  fact 
that  it  is  not  unusual  for  mariners  to  feel 
the  need  of  sleep  after  the  festivities  of 
Christmas  eve.  Following  the  example 
of  their  commander,  the  entire  crew  has- 
tened to  fall  asleep,  with  the  exception  of 
a  small-boy  to  whom  the  wheel  was  con- 
fided by  a  drowsy  quartermaster.  A  cur- 
rent steadily  drifted  the  vessel  toward  the 
land,  and  in  a  short  time  the  boy  at  the 
wheel  loudly  mentioned  that  the  ship  had 
struck.  The  Admiral  was  soon  on  deck 
— which  shows  that  perhaps,  after  all,  it 
was  nothing  stronger  than  claret  punch — 
and  in  time  succeeded  in  awakening  the 


1492]  ADVENTURES  ON  LAND.  1 03 

crew.  The  ship  was  hard  and  fast  on  a 
reef,  and  he  ordered  the  mast  to  be  cut 
away,  and  dispatched  a  boat  to  the  Nina 
Sor  assistance.  It  soon  became  evident 
that  the  Santa  Maria  would  go  to  pieces, 
and  accordingly  Columbus  and  all  his  men 
sought  refuge  on  board  the  other  vessel. 

Guacanagari  was  full  of  grief  at  the  dis- 
aster, and  sent  his  people  to  assist  in  sav- 
ing whatever  of  value  the  wreck  contained. 
He  came  on  board  the  Nina  and  invited 
the  Spaniards  to  come  to  his  village  and 
occupy  houses  which  he  had  set  apart  for 
them.  Here  he  entertained  them  with 
games — base-ball,  pedestrian  matches,  and 
such  like  pagan  spectacles  —  while  the 
Spaniards,  not  to  be  outdone  in  polite- 
ness, fired  off  a  cannon,  and  thereby  nearly 
frightened  the  natives  to  death.  Mean- 
while Columbus  kept  up  a  brisk  trade, 
exchanging  rusty  nails  for  gold,  of  which 
latter  metal  the  natives  now  produced 
considerable  quantities.  The  cacique, 
finding  that  gold  was  the  one  thing 
which,  above  all  others,  distracted  the 


IO4  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [J£t.  56 

Admiral's  mind  from  his  unfortunate  ship- 
wreck, sent  into  the  interior  and  collected 
so  much  that  the  Spaniards  imagined  that 
at  last  they  had  really  reached  the  golden 
island  of  Babeque. 

The  sailors  were  delighted  with  the  place. 
To  be  sure,  there  was  no  rum  ;  but  with 
that  exception  they  had  everything  that 
the  seafaring  heart  could  desire.  They 
spent  their  time  lying  in  the  shade,  waited 
on  by  obsequious  natives  and  fed  with 
turtle-soup  and  roast  chicken.  The  longer 
they  tried  this  sort  of  life,  the  more  they 
perceived  the  folly  of  going  back  to  the 
forecastle  and  its  diet  of  salt  horse.  They 
therefore  proposed  to  Columbus  that,  in- 
stead of  building  a  new  ship,  he  should 
leave  half  of  his  men  on  the  island  as 
colonists.  The  Admiral  was  pleased  with 
the  plan.  It  would  be  cheaper  to  leave 
two  or  three  dozen  men  behind  him  than 
to  carry  them  back  to  Spain,  and  if  he 
had  a  real  colony  in  his  newly  discovered 
western  world,  it  would  add  to  his  im- 
portance as  Viceroy.  So  he  announced 


I4Q2J  ADVENTURES  ON  LAND.  10$ 

that  he  had  decided  to  colonize  the  island, 
and  ordered  his  men  to  build  a  fort  with 
the  timbers  of  the  wrecked  flag-ship.  The 
natives  lent  their  aid,  and  in  a  short  time 
a  substantial  fort,  with  a  ditch,  drawbridge, 
flag-staff,  and  everything  necessary  to  the 
comfort  of  the  garrison,  was  erected.  It 
was  nlounted  with  two  or  three  spare 
cannons,  and  Guacanagari  was  told  that  it 
was  designed  to  defend  his  people  from 
the  attacks  of  the  Caribs,  a  tribe  which 
frequently  made  war  on  the  peaceful 
islanders.  The  fort  was  then  dignified 
with  the  title  of  "La  Navidad," — which  is 
the  Spanish  way  of  spelling  "nativity," 
although  it  does  not  do  the  Spaniards 
much  credit, — and  the  flag  of  Castile  and 
Aragon  was  hoisted  on  the  flag-staff. 

Thirty-nine  men,  under  the  command  of 
Diego  de  Arana,  the  notary,  were  selected 
to  garrison  La  Navidad.  Among  them 
were  a  tailor,  a  carpenter,  a  baker,  and  a 
shoemaker,  while  De  Arana  in  his  capacity 
of  notary  was  of  course  able  to  draw  up 
wills,  protest  bills  of  exchange,  and  take 


106  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [JEt.  56 

affidavits.  Columbus  did  not  venture  to 
leave  a  plumber  behind  him,  justly  fearing 
that  if  he  did  the  plumber  would  send  in 
bills  to  the  natives  which  would  goad 
them  into  an  indiscriminate  massacre  of 
the  whole  colony.  All  other  necessary 
trades  were,  however,  represented  among 
the  colonists,  from  which  circumstance 
we  gather  that  the  Spanish  marine  was 
manned  chiefly  by  mechanics. 

Having  organized  his  colony,  Colum- 
bus determined  to  hasten  back  to  Spain, 
lest  Pinzon  should  reach  home  before  him 
and  publish  an  unauthorized  work  with 
some  such  striking  title  as  "  How  I  found 
the  New  World,"  and  thereby  injure  the 
reputation  of  the  Admiral  and  the  sale  of 
the  only  authentic  account  of  the  expe- 
dition. There  were  rumors  that  Pinzon's 
vessel  had  been  seen  lying  at  anchor  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  island,  but  all  efforts  to 
find  him  failed.  It  was  only  too  probable 
that  he  was  on  his  way  back  to  Spain,  and 
it  was  important  that  he  should  not  arrive 
home  before  his  rightful  commander. 


1492]  ADVENTURES  ON  LAND.  1 07 

Before  sailing,  Columbus  made  a  fare- 
well address  to  the  colonists,  closely 
modelled  upon  the  Farewell  Address  of 
Washington.  He  warned  them  to  beware 
of  entangling  alliances  with  the  native 
women,  and  to  avoid  losing  the  affection 
and  respect  of  Guacanagari  and  his  people. 
The  sailors  promised  to  behave  with  the 
utmost  propriety,  and  winked  wickedly  at 
one  another  behind  the  Admiral's,  back. 
The  Spaniards  then  gave  a  grand  farewell 
entertainment  to  the  estimable  cacique, 
who  once  more  wept  on  the  bosom  of  the 
Admiral,  and  finally,  on  the  4th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1493,  Columbus  sailed  for  Spain. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    HOMEWARD    VOYAGE. 

THE  wind,  as  usual,  was  dead  ahead, 
and  the  Nina  made  slow  progress. 
For  two  days  she  lay  at  anchor  in  a  quiet 
bay,  but  the  Admiral  was  so  anxious  to 
reach  Spain  in  advance  of  Pinzon  that  he 
would  not  wait  any  longer  for  a  change 
of  wind.  Before  he  had  succeeded  in  get- 
ting out  of  sight  of  land,  the  missing  Pinta 
was  sighted,  and,  Columbus's  anxiety  being 
partially  relieved,  the  two  ships  put  back 
and  anchored  at  the  mouth  of  a  river.  The 
interview  between  Pinzon  and  the  Admiral 
must  have  been  interesting.  It  is  evident 
from  many  things  that,  since  his  great 
voyage  had  been  successful,  Columbus  had 
ceased  to  be  the  conversational  bane  of 
humanity,  and  had  become  a  reasonably 
taciturn  man.  On  this  occasion  Pinzon 
found  him  painfully  silent.  That  troubled 


1493]  THE  HOMEWARD   VOYAGE.  109 

mariner  attempted  to  account  for  his  de- 
sertion by  saying  it  was  all  an  accident, 
and  that  he  had  lain  awake  night  after 
night  bewailing  the  cruel  fate  which  had 
separated  him  from  his  beloved  com- 
mander. He  was  ready  to  swear  all  sorts 
of  maritime  oaths  that  he  had  never  meant 
to  part  company  and  cruise  alone. 

The  Admiral  gloomily  remarked  that, 
while  no  man  should  be  held  accountable 
for  an  accident,  he  felt  that  it  was  his  duty 
to  mention  that  hereafter  any  officer  found 
guilty  of  the  commission  of  a  similar  acci- 
dent would  be  court-martialled  and  hanged, 
after  which  Pinzon  was  permitted  to  return 
to  his  ship. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  Pinzon  com- 
manded the  larger  ship  and  could  probably 
have  beaten  the  Nina  in  a  fair  fight,  the 
Admiral  was  wise  in  accepting  his  excuses 
and  affecting  to  believe  his  story.  He 
afterward  learned  that  Pinzon  had  really 
been  at  anchor  on  the  eastern  side  of  the 
island,  where  it  was  reported  that  he  had 
been  seen,  and  that  he  had  secured  a  large 


110  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [^Et.  57 

quantity  of  gold ;  but  it  was  judged  inju- 
dicious to  ask  him  to  surrender  the  gold 
to  the  Admiral.  Thus  harmony  between 
Columbus  and  Pinzon  was  thoroughly  re- 
stored, and  they  hated  and  distrusted  each 
other  with  great  vigor. 

The  meeting  of  the  Pinta  and  the  Nina 
was,  we  may  presume,  celebrated  in  due 
form,  for  Columbus,  although  he  was  a 
very  abstemious  man,  asserts  in  his  journal 
that  at  this  time  he  saw  several  mermaids. 
We  do  not  know  what  Pinzon  saw  ;  but  if 
the  abstemious  Admiral  saw  mermaids,  the 
less  decorous  Pinzon  probably  saw  a  sea- 
serpent  and  a  procession  of  green  mon- 
keys with  spiked  Prussian  helmets  on  their 
heads. 

On  the  Qth  of  January  the  ships  again 
weighed  anchor  and  sailed  along  the  coast, 
stopping  from  time  to  time  to  trade*  with 
the  natives.  At  Samana  Bay  the  Span- 
iards found  a  tribe  of  fierce  savages,  with 
whom  they  had  a  skirmish  which  resulted 
in  wounding  two  of  the  enemy.  Never- 
theless, the  local  cacique  made  peace  the 


1493]  THE  HOMEWARD   VOYAGE.  Ill 

next  day,  and  told  Columbus  a  very  meri- 
torious and  picturesque  lie  concerning  an 
island  inhabited  by  a  tribe  of  Amazons. 
Recent  events  indicate  that  in  fighting  and 
lying  the  present  inhabitants  of  Samana  Bay 
are  no  unworthy  representatives  of  those 
whom  Columbus  met. 

When,  on  the  i6th  of  January,  Colum- 
bus made  positively  his  last  departure  for 
Spain,  he  intended  to  stop  on  the  way  and 
discover  Porto  Rico,  which  lay  a  little 
southward  of  his  true  course.  To  this, 
however,  the  sailors  strongly  objected. 
They  had  discovered  as  many  islands  as, 
in  their  opinion,  any  reasonable  man  could 
desire,  and  they  pined  for  Palos  and  its 
rum-shops.  They  did  not  break  out  into 
mutiny,  but  they  expressed  their  feelings 
so  plainly,  by  singing  "  Home  Again"  and 
other  depressing  songs,  that  Columbus  felt 
the  wisdom  of  gratifying  them — especially 
in  view  of  the  probability  that  Pinzon 
would  again  give  him  the  slip  at  the  first 
opportunity.  The  sailors  were  therefore 
ordered  to  square  away  the  yards,  and  the 


112  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [>Et.  57 

ships  were  put  before  the  fair  west  wind 
with  their  several  bowsprits  pointing 
straight  toward  Palos.  Joy  filled  the 
bosoms  and  heightened  the  ruddy  tint  of 
the  noses  of  the  crew.  That  night  they 
thought  more  highly  of  Columbus  than 
ever  before,  and  remarked  among  them- 
selves that  they  were  glad  to  see  that  the 
old  man  could  restrain  his  unnatural  thirst 
for  islands  when  it  became  clearly  necessary 
for  him  to  do  so. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  fleet — if  two 
vessels  can  be  regarded  as  a  fleet,  except 
in  the  United  States  Navy — came  into  the 
region  where  the  trade-winds  constantly 
blow  from  the  east.  Columbus  may  not 
have  recognized  them  as  trade-winds,  but  he 
perfectly  understood  that  they  were  head- 
winds, and  with  a  view  of  avoiding  them 
steered  in  a  northerly  direction.  He  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  out  of  the  region  of 
perpetual  east  winds,  but  he  reached  the 
latitude  where  storms-centres  moving  rapid- 
ly to  the  east  and  south,  together  with  areas 
of  depression  in  the  region  of  the  lakes  and 


M93]  THE  HOMEWARD   VOYAGE.  113 

rain  in  the  New  England  and  Middle 
States — in  short,  all  the  worst  varieties 
of  weather  in  the  repertoire  of  the  Signal 
Service  Bureau — prevail.  The  pilots  soon 
lost  all  idea  of  the  course  which  the  ves- 
sels had  sailed,  and  as  each  one  entertained 
a  different  opinion  about  the  matter,  while 
Columbus  differed  from  them  all  and  made 
it  a  practice  to  confuse  their  minds  with 
opinions  on  navigation  of  the  most  intri- 
cate character,  there  was  a  certain  lack  of 
cordial  and  intelligent  agreement  among 
the  navigators  of  the  fleet. 

About  the  middle  of  February  a  succes- 
sion of  tremendous  tempests  overtook  the 
vessels.  For  days  they  drove  before  a  gale 
which  carried  them  in  a  north-easterly 
direction  and  threatened  every  moment  to 
sink  them  and  hide  all  vestiges  of  the  great 
transatlantic  expedition  beneath  the  waves. 
Pinzon,  owing  to  the  injured  condition  of 
his  mast,  had  no  control  over  his  ship,  and 
was  soon  carried  out  of  sight  of  Columbus. 
The  latter  felt  that  the  time  had  come  to 
employ  all  his  knowledge  of  seamanship. 


114  CHRISTOPHER    COLUMBUS.          |>Et.  57 

An  ordinary  prosaic  ship-captain  of  the 
present  day,  finding  himself  in  a  like  situ- 
ation, would  have  brought  his  ship  down 
to  a  close-reefed  maintopsail,  and,  bring- 
ing the  wind  on  his  starboard  quarter, 
would  have  steered  about  east  by  south, 
and  so  carried  the  ship  out  of  the  cyclone 
in  two  or  three  hours.  Columbus,  how- 
ever, was  far  too  scientific  a  navigator  to 
adopt  any  such  commonplace  expedient. 
He  mustered  his  crew,  and  ordered  them  to 
draw  lots  to  see  who  should  vow  to  make 
pilgrimages  in  case  they  should  succeed 
in  reaching  land.  He  himself  drew  a  lot 
which  required  him  to  make  one  pilgrim- 
age to  Santa  Clara  de  Moguer,  and  another 
to  Santa  Maria  de  Guadalupe,  and,  in 
addition,  to  pay  for  a  series  of  masses  and 
to  present  candles  to  the  Blessed  Virgin. 

As  this  manoeuvre,  which  was  at  that 
time  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  abstruse 
known  to  mariners,  unaccountably  failed 
to  better  the  condition  of  the  ship,  the 
entire  crew  vowed  to  march  to  the  first 
available  church  bare-footed  and  clad  only 


1493]  THE  HOMEWARD   VOYAGE.  115 

in  their  shirts.  The  frightful  nature  of  the 
storm  may  be  imagined  from  the  fact  that, 
in  spite  of  this  splendid  display  of  Spanish 
seamanship,  the  Nina  continued  to  exhibit 
a  determined  propensity  to  go  to  pieces  or 
to  founder.  Having  thus  done  everything 
that  a  sailor  could  do,  and  all  without 
avail,  Columbus  yielded  to  the  promptings 
of  superstition,  and  filling  a  quantity  of 
empty  casks  with  sea-water  placed  them 
in  the  hold,  where  he  hoped  they  would 
render  the  ship  somewhat  stiffer.  The 
Nina  at  once  became  steadier  and  ceased 
to  try  to  lie  over  on  her  side,  and  it  is  quite 
possible  that  Columbus  believed  that  his 
superstitious  use  of  casks  had  more  to  do 
with  the  salvation  of  the  ship  than  all  the 
combined  vows  of  the  Admiral  and  his 
men. 

While  in  imminent  danger  of  drowning, 
Columbus  had  the  cool  forethought  to 
write  a  full  account  of  his  discoveries.  He 
enclosed  the  manuscript  in  a  water-tight 
barrel,  which  he  threw  overboard  after 
having  attached  to  it  a  written  request  that 


Il6  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  57 

the  finder  would  return  it  to  Christopher 
Columbus,  or  his  representatives  at  Cadiz, 
Spain,  where  he  would  be  suitably  re- 
warded. It  has  not  yet  been  found,  but  it 
is  the  intention  of  Dr.  Schliemann,  the 
discoverer  of  the  personal  jewelry  of 
Helen  of  Troy,  to  discover  it  whenever  he 
can  spare  a  few  days  from  more  important 
discoveries. 

On  the  1 5th  of  February  land  was 
sighted.  It  was  the  island  of  St.  Mary's, 
one  of  the  Azores,  but  no  one  except 
Columbus  had  any  idea  that  the  Nina  was 
farther  north  than  the  latitude  of  Lisbon. 
No  sooner  had  the  land  been  sighted  than 
the  wind  changed  to  the  north-east,  and 
it  was  two  days  before  the  Nina  could 
reach  the  island  and  anchor  under  its  lee. 

As  for  the  Pinta,  it  was  believed  that  in 
her  crippled  condition  she  must  have  per- 
ished in  the  storm,  and  as  a  matter  of  course 
Columbus  felt  extremely  sorry  that  Pinzon 
could  no  longer  display  his  insubordinate 
and  unprincipled  want  of  respect  for  his 
superior  officer. 


1493]  THE  HOMEWARD   VOYAGE.  tl? 

Of  course  everybody  was  anxious  to  go 
ashore  at  once.  The  sailors  anticipated 
that  rum  could  be  found  on  the  island,  it 
being  inhabited  by  civilized  and  Christian 
people,  and  Columbus,  who,  we  may  sup- 
pose, was  not  very  well  satisfied  that  he 
had  been  selected  by  lot  to  make  two 
pilgrimages  and  spend  a  quantity  of 
money  in  masses  and  candles,  was  anxious 
to  see  the  crew  parade  for  attendance  on 
divine  worship  in  their  shirts.  But  the 
Azores  belonged  to  Portugal,  and  though 
the  Portuguese  king  had  refused  to  assist 
Columbus  in  his  plans  of  exploration,  he 
was  very  indignant  that  any  other  mon- 
arch should  have  helped  the  Italian  ad- 
venturer, and  felt  that  Columbus  had 
treated  him  disrespectfully  by  accepting 
Spanish  help.  Knowing  all  this,  Colum- 
bus remained  on  shipboard  and  sent  a 
boat  ashore  to  inquire  if  there  was  a 
church  near  at  hand. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  island  were  greatly 
astonished  to  learn  that  the  weather-beaten 
ship  lying  at  anchor  was  the  remnant  of 


118  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [-fit.  57 

the  exploring  expedition  which  had  sailed 
six  months  earlier  from  Palos.  The  Gov- 
ernor of  the  island,  Juan  de  Casteneda,  had 
been  ordered  by  the  Portuguese  king  to 
arrest  Columbus,  in  case  he  should  visit 
the  Azores,  for  the  offence  of  discovering 
continents  without  a  license  from  the  Por- 
tuguese. De  Casteneda  therefore  was 
anxious  to  induce  Columbus  to  land,  but 
by  too  great  zeal  he  overreached  him- 
self. 

As  soon  as  it  was  ascertained  that  there 
was  a  shrine  on  the  island,  Columbus 
ordered  his  men  to  fulfil  their  vow  by 
marching  in  procession  to  it  in  their  un- 
trammelled shirts.  One  half  the  crew  were 
detailed  for  this  pious  duty,  and  the  Ad- 
miral intended  to  march  with  the  other  half 
as  soon  as  the  first  division  should  return. 
The  hasty  Governor  waited  till  the  proces- 
sion had  entered  the  shrine,  and  then 
arrested  every  one  of  its  members,  on  the 
frivolous  plea  of  dressing  in  a  way  adapted 
to  outrage  the  feelings  of  the  public  and 
to  excite  a  breach  of  the  peace.  When 


1493]  THE  HOMEWARD   VOYAGE.  119 

Columbus  found  his  men  did  not  return, 
he  weighed  anchor  and  stood  in  toward  the 
shore.  He  was  met  by  a  boat  containing 
the  Governor,  who  declined  to  come  on 
board  the  Nina,  and  conducted  himself 
generally  in  such  a  suspicious  way  that  Co- 
lumbus lost  his  temper  and  called  him  un- 
pleasant names.  He  held  up  his  commis- 
sion with  its  enormous  seal,  and  told  the 
Governor  to  look  at  it  and  comprehend  that 
sealing-wax  was  not  lavished  in  that  way 
except  upon  officers  of  distinguished  merit. 
The  Governor  not  only  insulted  Columbus, 
but  he  spoke  derisively  of  the  sealing-wax, 
and  then  rowed  back  to  land,  resolved  to 
keep  his  shirt-clad  prisoners  until  he  could 
add  Columbus  himself  to  the  collection. 

The  usual  gale  soon  after  sprang  up,  and 
the  Nina  was  driven  out  to  sea  and  kept 
there  in  very  unpleasant  circumstances  for 
several  days.  When  at  length  Columbus 
again  returned  to  his  anchorage,  De  Cas- 
teneda  sent  two  priests  and  a  notary  to 
inspect  his  papers.  They  found  that  his 
commission  was  properly  made  out,  that 


120  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  57 

the  ship  had  a  clean  bill  of  health,  and  that 
her  clearance  from  Guacanagari's  custom- 
house was  without  a  flaw.  They  then  in- 
formed him  that  the  Governor  had  been 
compelled  to  exercise  a  little  caution  lest 
vessels  arriving  from  the  West  Indies 
should  introduce  yellow  fever  into  the 
Azores,  but  that  he  was  now  entirely 
satisfied  and  would  be  glad  to  have  Co- 
lumbus call  on  him.  The  next  morning 
he  liberated  the  men  whom  he  had  made 
prisoners,  and  let  them  return  to  their 
ship  and  their  trousers,  it  being  evident 
that  he  could  not  hope  to  arrest  Colum- 
bus, now  that  the  latter  was  on  his  guard. 
Having  regained  possession  of  his  men, 
Columbus  set  sail  for  home  on  the  24th 
of  the  month.  In  about  a  week  another 
storm,  more  violent  than  any  which  had 
preceded  it,  struck  the  unhappy  voyagers. 
Once  more  the  splendid  seamanship  of  the 
commander  was  displayed  by  an  order  for  all 
hands  to  draw  lots  for  pilgrimages.  This 
time  the  loser  was  to  walk  barefooted  to 
the  shrine  of  Santa  Maria  de  la  Cueva,  and 


1493]  THE  HOMEWARD  VOYAGE.  121 

when  Columbus  found  that  he  had  once 
more  drawn  the  losing  lot,  he  must  have 
made  a  private  vow  to  play  henceforth 
some  other  game  in  which  he  might  have 
some  little  chance  to  win  something.  It 
is  impossible  to  repress  the  suspicion  that 
the  vow  afterward  made  by  the  crew  to 
eat  nothing  but  bread  and  drink  nothing 
but  water  for  a  week,  was  made  in  accor- 
dance with  the  determination  of  the  Ad- 
miral that  he  should  not  be  the  only  person 
to  perform  painful  and  difficult  feats  of 
practical  seamanship. 

During  the  worst  of  the  storm,  and  in 
the  middle  of  the  night,  land  was  seen, 
and  the  ship  had  a  narrow  escape  from 
being  dashed  upon  it.  When  daylight 
appeared,  it  was  found  that  the  mouth  of 
the  Tagus  was  close  at  hand  ;  and  although 
it  was  obviously  dangerous  for  Columbus 
to  venture  into  Portuguese  waters,  he 
sailed  into  the  river  and  anchored  in  a 
sheltered  place  near  the  rock  of  Cintra. 
He  lost  no  time  in  sending  letters,  by 
the  District  Telegraph  messengers  of  the 


122  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [yEt.  57 

period,  to  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese 
monarchs,  and  asked  of  the  latter  permis- 
sion to  sail  up  the  river  to  Lisbon.  This 
request  was  obviously  a  hollow  form. 
Lisbon  was  the  last  place  to  which  the  Ad- 
miral would  have  been  willing  to  take  his 
ship,  but  he  wanted  to  convince  the  Portu- 
guese king  that  he  had  the  utmost  confi- 
dence in  him. 


CHAPTER  X. 

HIS    RECEPTION,    AND    PREPARATION    FOR    A 
SECOND    EXPEDITION. 

EVERYBODY  who  could  hire  a  horse 
I  j  or  a  boat  came  from  the  surrounding 
country  to  see  the  ship  that  had  crossed  the 
Atlantic.  The  Portuguese  nobly  forgot  the 
years  in  which  Columbus  had  lived  in  Por- 
tugal and  talked  their  fellow-countrymen 
into  untimely  graves,  and  they  gave  him 
as  enthusiastic  reception  as  an  American 
town  gives  to  a  successful  pedestrian. 
Presently  there  came  a  letter  from  King 
John  of  Portugal,  inviting  Columbus  to 
come  to  his  palace  at  Valparaiso,  near  Lis- 
bon. The  crew  of  the  Ntna,  having  reached 
a  Christian  country  where,  by  the  orders  of 
the  King,  they  were  supplied  with  wine 
without  limit  and  without  price,  were  per- 
fectly contented  to  defer  returning  to  their 
families  at  Palos,  and  were,  on  the  whole, 


124  CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS.         |>£t.  57 

rather  anxious  that  their  commander  should 
leave  them  for  a  few  days.  Columbus, 
much  against  his  will,  felt  compelled  to  ac- 
cept the  King's  invitation,  and  was  kindly 
received  at  Valparaiso. 

Of  course  Columbus,  when  he  described 
the  results  of  his  voyage,  could  not  deny 
himself  the  pleasure  of  reminding  King 
John  that  he  might  have  had  the  glory  of 
sending  out  the  expedition.  He  told  the 
King  that  he  was  really  sorry  for  him,  and 
hoped  it  would  be  a  lesson  to  him  never 
to  refuse  an  offer  made  by  a  meritorious 
Genoese  to  find  new  continents  for  him. 
King  John  expressed  his  pleasure  at  the 
success  of  Columbus,  but  incidentally  re- 
marked that  he  presumed  his  seafaring 
friend  was  aware  that,  by  the  provisions  of 
an  ancient  treaty  and  a  papal  bull,  all  the 
countries  that  Columbus  had  discovered 
undoubtedly  belonged  to  Portugal. 

This  conversation  was  not  altogether 
satisfactory  to  Columbus,  but  he  would 
have  been  still  more  dissatisfied  had  he 
known  the  advice  which  the  King's  coun- 


1493]  HIS  RECEPTION.  125 

cillors  gave  him.  They  said  there  was 
not  the  least  doubt  that  the  native  In- 
dians on  board  the  Nina  had  been  stolen 
from  the  Portuguese  East  Indies,  and  that 
Columbus  ought  to  be  immediately  killed. 
The  King  did  not  favor  the  death  of  Co- 
lumbus, but  suggested  that  the  truly  hon- 
orable course  to  pursue  would  be  to  dis- 
miss Columbus  in  the  respectful  manner 
due  to  his  gallant  conduct,  and  to  send  im- 
mediately a  secret  expedition  to  take  pos- 
session of  the  countries  which  he  had  dis- 
covered. In  accordance  with  this  decision, 
Columbus  was  treated  with  great  polite- 
ness, and  returned  to  his  ship,  quite  igno- 
rant of  his  narrow  escape  from  death,  and 
in  excellent  spirits  with  the  exception  of 
a  slight  uneasiness  as  to  the  amount  of 
truth  that  might  exist  in  the  King's  remark 
about  ancient  treaties  and  papal  balls. 
Sailing  from  the  Tagus,  he  reached  Palos 
in  two  days,  and  landed  on  the  i5th  of 
March. 

The   return  of   Columbus   created   im- 
mense surprise,  and  with  the  exception  of 


126  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [JEt.  57 

the  wives  of  his  sailors,  who,  having  as- 
sumed that  their  husbands  never  would  re- 
turn, had  married  again,  everybody  received 
him  with  enthusiasm.  The  shops  were 
closed,  all  the  boys  in  the  schools  were 
given  a  half-holiday,  and  the  entire  popu- 
lation flocked  to  the  church  whither  Co- 
lumbus and  his  men  betook  themselves  as 
soon  as  they  landed,  to  return  thanks  for 
their  preservation.  Columbus  was  no 
longer,  in  public  estimation,  the  tedious 
foreigner  who  ought  to  be  sent  out  of 
the  country  at  any  cost ;  he  was  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  men  in  Spain,  who 
deserved  all  sorts  of  honors.  There  were 
any  number  of  men  who  now  recollected 
that  they  had  always  said  he  was  a  great 
man  and  would  certainly  discover  a  first- 
class  continent,  and  there  were  very  few 
persons  in  all  Palos  who  were  not  con- 
fident that  the  encouragement  which  they 
had  given  to  Columbus  had  been  one  of 
the  chief  causes  of  his  success. 

The  King  and  Queen  were  at  Barcelona, 
but  the  Admiral,  having  had  all  the  sea- 


1493]  HIS  RECEPTION.  I2/ 

voyaging  that  his  system  seemed  to  re- 
quire, decided  to  go  to  Barcelona  by  land 
instead  of  by  water,  and  after  writing  to 
the  monarchs,  announcing  his  arrival,  he 
set  out  for  Seville,  to  wait  for  orders. 

The  same  day  on  which  Columbus  land- 
ed, and  about  twelve  hours  later,  the  Pinta 
arrived.  Pinzon  had  been  driven  by  the 
storm  which  separated  him  from  the  Nina 
into  Bayonne.  Making  up  his  mind  that 
Columbus  was  safely  drowned,  he  wrote  to 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  announcing  that  he 
had  made  remarkably  valuable  discoveries  ; 
that  he  would  hasten  to  Spain  to  report  to 
them  in  person  ;  and  that  he  was  sorry  to 
say  that  Columbus  had  found  a  watery 
grave.  When  he  entered  the  harbor  of 
Palos,  and  saw  the  Nina  at  anchor,  he  felt 
that  life  was  a  hollow  mockery.  He  went 
quietly  to  his  own  house,  and  wrote  to  the 
monarchs  a  letter  which,  we  may  assume, 
differed  somewhat  in  its  tone  from  the  one 
he  had  written  from  Bayonne.  The  reply 
was  extremely  cold,  and  forbade  Pinzon  to 
present  himself  at  court. 


128  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          |>Et.  57 

The  people  of  Palos,  having  already  cele- 
brated, to  the  utmost  of  their  power,  the 
arrival  of  Columbus,  were  rather  annoyed 
at  Pinzon's  appearance,  and  thought  that 
on  the  whole  it  was  an  unwarrantable  lib- 
erty. That  Pinzon  was  a  really  intelligent 
man  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  he  hastened 
to  die  a  few  days  after  he  had  received  the 
monarch's  unpleasant  letter.  There  was 
obviously  nothing  else  left  for  him  to  do, 
and  he  deserves  credit  for  thus  clearly  per- 
ceiving his  duty. 

Columbus,  soon  after  his  arrival  at  Se- 
ville, received  a  flattering  letter  from  Fer- 
dinand and  Isabella,  who  thanked  him  for 
his  services,  invited  him  to  come  to  court, 
and  mentioned  that  the  sooner  he  could  fit 
out  a  new  expedition  the  better  it  would 
be.  Accompanied  by  six  Indians  and  a 
quantity  of  parrots,  together  with  a  collec- 
tion of  stuffed  animals  and  specimens  of 
novel  trees  and  late  West  Indian  designs 
in  minerals,  the  Admiral  proceeded  to  Bar- 
celona, exciting  immense  enthusiasm  at 
every  town  on  the  road,  and  being  mistaken 


1493]  HIS  RECEPTION.  1 29 

by  the  youth  of  Spain  for  some  new  kind 
of  circus.  On  his  arrival  at  court,  the  mon- 
archs  received  him  in  great  state,  and  asked 
him  to  take  a  chair  and  make  himself  at 
home ;  this  being  the  first  time  within  the 
memory  of  man  that  they  had  ever  asked 
any  one  to  be  seated. 

As  has  been  said,  Columbus  had  greatly 
improved  in  point  of  reticence  after  his 
discovery  of  the  New  World,  but  on  this 
occasion  he  appears  to  have  relapsed  into 
his  old  habits.  At  any  rate,  the  lecture 
which  he  proceeded  to  deliver  was  of  such 
appalling  length  that  when  it  was  finished 
the  King  and  Queen  both  fell  on  their  re- 
spective knees  in  thankful  prayer,  and  after- 
ward ordered  the  Te  Deum  to  be  sung. 

There  was  a  slight  portion  of  truth  in  the 
remarks  made  by  King  John  of  Portugal 
to  Columbus  concerning  a  papal  bull  as- 
signing certain  countries  to  the  Portuguese 
Crown.  It  was  conceded  by  all  Christian 
nations  of  that  period  that  the  Pope  owned 
in  fee  simple  all  the  heathen  countries 
wheresoever  situated.  One  of  the  Popes 


I3O  CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS,         |>Et.  57 

had  assigned  to  the  Portuguese  all  those 
certain  heathen  lands  situate,  lying,  and 
being  in  the  continent  of  Africa,  together 
with  all  and  singular  the  heathen  and  other 
objects  thereunto  belonging  or  in  any  wise 
appertaining.  This  was  the  bull  to  which 
King  John  referred.  It  is  true  that  it  did 
not  give  him  any  right  to  lands  and  heath- 
en in  America,  but  the  Spanish  monarchs 
thought  it  would  be  wise  to  obtain  a  bull 
formally  assigning  America  to  them.  They 
therefore  wrote  to  Pope  Alexander  VI., 
informing  him  that  they  had  discovered  a 
new  continent  full  of  desirable  heathen  ad- 
mirably fitted  for  conversion,  and  request- 
ing a  formal  grant  thereof.  At  the  same 
time,  Columbus,  in  order  to  prove  the 
pious  character  of  his  expedition,  ordered 
his  six  best  Indians  to  be  baptized. 

The  Pope  issued  the  desired  bull,  and, 
in  order  to  avoid  any  objection  on  the 
part  of  the  Portuguese,  divided  the  At- 
lantic by  a  meridian  one  hundred  miles 
west  of  the  Azores,  giving  to  the  Portu- 
guese all  the  heathen  lands  which  they 


1493]  HIS  RECEPTION.  131 

might  discover  east  of  this  meridian,  and 
to  the  Spaniards  all  that  they  might  dis- 
cover west  of  it.  This  was  very  hand- 
some on  the  part  of  the  Pope,  and  showed 
that  he  was  liberal  and  open-handed. 

The  news  of  the  return  of  Columbus 
filled  every  European  monarch  with  the 
conviction  that  the  discovery  of  new  con- 
tinents was  the  only  proper  occupation 
for  a  monarch  of  spirit,  and  with  the  de- 
termination to  make  discoveries  first  and 
to  call  on  the  lawyers  to  find  flaws  in  the 
Pope's  bull  afterward.  It  was  therefore 
important  that  there  should  be  no  delay  in 
sending  out  a  second  Spanish  expedition. 
Orders  were  issued  by  the  monarchs  of 
Castile  and  Aragon,  authorizing  Columbus 
to  buy,  hire,  or  seize  any  vessels  that  he 
might  find  in  the  ports  of  Andalusia  that 
were  suited  for  exploring  purposes,  and  to 
impress  any  officers  or  sailors  that  might 
suit  his  fancy.  For  ships,  provisions, 
stores,  and  men  thus  seized  fair  prices 
were  to  be  paid,  and  money  was  raised 
for  this  purpose  from  all  available  sources, 


132  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [J£t.  57 

though  no  man  seems  to  have  thought  of 
the  expedient  of  printing  paper-money, 
and  thus  creating  out  of  nothing  currency 
enough  to  defray  the  cost  of  a  voyage  to 
America,  and  to  move  the  West  India 
gold  and  slave  crops. 

To  assist  Columbus  and  to  conduct  the 
business  of  exploration  and  colonization, 
Archdeacon  Juan  Rodriguez  de  Fonseca 
was  made  a  sort  of  Secretary  of  Explora- 
tion and  Superintendent  of  Indian  Af- 
fairs, and  was  given  very  extensive  powers. 
It  may  seem  to  us  strange  that  a  priest 
should  have  received  this  appointment, 
but  priests  were  as  numerous  in  Spain 
as  Colonels  now  are  in  South  Caro- 
lina, and  probably  all  the  men  who  were 
not  priests  were  either  in  jail  or  had 
volunteered  to  join  Columbus  as  sailors 
and  gold-hunters.  It  was  this  able  Arch- 
deacon who  chiefly  organized  the  second 
expedition  of  Columbus,  and  he  engaged 
twelve  active  priests  well  acquainted  with 
the  screw,  the  pulley,  the  wheel,  and  the 
other  theologico-mechanical  powers,  and 


1493]  HIS  RECEPTION.  133 

commanded  by  the  Apostolic  Vicar  Rev. 
Bernardo  Boyle,  to  convert  the  heathen 
as  fast  as  they  should  be  discovered. 

It  would  violate  all  precedent  if  the 
story  of  Columbus  and  the  egg  were  to 
be  spared  the  readers  of  this  volume.  It 
is  briefly  as  follows  :  Soon  after  his  return 
to  Spain  he  dined  with  Cardinal  de  Men- 
doza,  an  eminent  clergyman  with  a  talent 
for  dinner.  An  objectionable  young  man 
who  was  present,  and  who  undoubtedly 
had  taken  more  champagne  than  was 
good  for  his  fellow-diners,  asked  the  Ad- 
miral if  he  did  not  think  that  if  he  had  not 
discovered  the  New  World  some  one  else 
would  very  shortly  have  discovered  it.  He 
was  unquestionably  an  impertinent  young 
man,  but  he  was  undoubtedly  right  in  as- 
suming that  sooner  or  later  the  Atlantic 
would  have  been  crossed,  even  if  Colum- 
bus had  never  been  born.  Historians  tell 
us  that  Columbus,  in  reply,  asked  the 
young  man  if  he  could  stand  an  egg  on 
its  little  end ;  and  when  the  young  man, 
after  rudely  inquiring  what  Columbus  was 


134  CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS.         [;Et.  57 

giving  him,  was  constrained  to  admit  that 
he  could  not  perform  the  feat  in  question, 
the  great  explorer  simply  flattened  the 
little  end  of  the  egg  by  knocking  it  against 
the  table,  and  then  easily  made  it  stand 
upright.  The  whole  company  instantly 
burst  into  tears,  and  exclaimed  that  Co- 
lumbus was  the  greatest  and  noblest  of 
mankind. 

If  this  trick  of  flattening  an  egg  was 
really  regarded  as  a  brilliant  repartee,  by 
which  the  impertinent  young  man  ought 
to  have  been  utterly  withered  up,  it  gives 
us  a  melancholy  view  of  the  state  of 
the  art  of  repartee  among  the  Spaniards. 
The  real  facts  of  the  case  are  probably 
these  :  Cardinal  De  Mendoza,  the  dinner, 
and  the  impertinent  young  man  doubtless 
existed  in  the  form  and  manner  specified ; 
and  the  impertinent  young  man,  in  an 
advanced  state  of  champagne,  probably 
said  something  insulting  to  the  Admiral. 
The  latter,  disdaining  to  notice  the  affront 
by  words,  and  reluctant  to  cause  any  un- 
pleasant scene  at  the  Cardinal's  dinner- 


1493]  HIS  RECEPTION.  135 

table,  merely  threw  an  egg  at  the  offender's 
head,  and  pursued  his  conversation  with 
his  host.  Subsequent  writers,  determined 
to  give  a  profoundly  scientific  character  to 
everything  the  Admiral  did,  built  up  from 
this  slight  basis  of  fact  the  egg-balancing 
story.  In  point  of  fact,  any  one  can 
balance  an  egg  on  its  little  end  by  the 
exercise  of  little  care  and  patience,  and  it 
is  rather  more  easy  to  do  this  with  an  egg 
that  has  not  been  flattened  than  with  one 
that  has. 

There  is  another  contemporaneous  story 
which  is  far  more  credible,  and  requires  no 
explanation.  While  Columbus  was  enjoy- 
ing the  honors  which  were  everywhere 
lavished  upon  him,  and  was  on  visiting 
terms  with  the  King  and  Queen,  and 
dining  with  Cardinals  and  Aldermen  and 
Chambers  of  Commerce,  the  unhappy 
sailor  who  first  saw  land,  but  whose 
promised  reward  was  appropriated  by 
Columbus,  went  to  Africa  and  turned 
Mahometan,  in  disgust  at  his  treatment. 
Probably  Columbus  thought  that,  in  the 


136  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [^Et.  57 

circumstances,  this  was  a  delicate  and  con- 
siderate act,  for  the  sight  of  the  man  could 
hardly  have  given  much  satisfaction  to 
the  Admiral  who  had  pocketed  the  re- 
ward. 

Meari while  King  John  of  Portugal  was 
busy  fitting  out  an  expedition  ostensibly 
to  explore  the  coast  of  Africa,  but  really 
to  discover  transatlantic  countries.  He 
tried  to  induce  the  Pope  to  give  him  the 
islands  discovered  by  Columbus,  and  in- 
formed Ferdinand  and  Isabella  that  he 
was  advised  by  his  counsel  that,  under  the 
authority  of  the  early  bull  already  referred 
to,  any  countries  that  might  be  discovered 
south  of  a  line  drawn  westward  from  the 
Canaries  were,  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  a 
part  of  Africa,  and  as  such  would  belong 
to  Portugal.  The  Spanish  monarchs  con- 
ducted the  diplomatic  dispute  with  him  in 
the  ablest  manner,  sending  to  Portugal 
their  most  tedious  ambassadors,  and  thus 
prolonging  the  negotiations  as  long  as 
possible. 

Columbus,  refusing  all  offers  to  lecture 


1493]  HIS  RECEPTION,  137 

before  the  Spanish  lyceums,  hurried  for- 
ward his  own  expedition  so  as  to  sail  be- 
fore the  Portuguese  fleet  could  be  made 
ready.  With  the  aid  of  Fonseca  and  the 
latter's  two  chief  assistants,  Francisco  Pi- 
nelo  and  Juan  de  Soria,  he  collected  seven- 
teen ships,  their  crews,  and  a  large  com- 
pany of  colonists,  and  all  the  supplies  and 
live-stock  needed  for  planting  an  imposing 
colony.  There  was  no  lack  of  volunteers. 
Every  man  who  thirsted  for  adventure, 
and  every  ruined  nobleman  who  wanted 
to  repair  his  broken  fortunes,  was  eager  to 
accompany  Columbus ;  and  even  the  small- 
boys,  excited  by  a  desire  to  scalp  Indians, 
were  anxious  to  run  away  and  ship  as 
cabin-boys  on  board  the  fleet.  No  less 
than  fifteen  hundred  persons  were  either 
accepted  as  volunteers  or  accompanied  the 
expedition  as  stowaways,  and  among  them 
was  as  fine  and  varied  a  collection  of 
scoundrels  as  had  ever  set  sail  from  an 
alleged  Christian  country. 

The  expedition  was  not  organized  with- 
out several   disputes   between  Columbus 


138  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [vEt.  57 

and  Fonseca.  The  latter  complained  that 
the  Admiral  wanted  too  many  servants, 
including  footmen,  coachmen,  and  other 
gaudy  and  useless  followers ;  while  the 
Admiral,  in  his  turn,  insisted  that  the  Arch- 
deacon could  not  be  made  to  understand 
that  footmen  were  absolutely  necessary  to 
the  work  of  exploration.  The  King,  when 
appealed  to,  always  decided  that  Columbus 
was  right ;  but  it  is  doubtful  if  Fonseca's 
affection  for  the  Admiral  was  thereby 
greatly  increased.  Finally  all  was  ready, 
and  on  the  25th  of  September,  1493,  the 
second  personally  conducted  transatlantic 
expedition  of  Christopher  Columbus  set 
sail  from  Cadiz. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

EXPLORATIONS    IN    THE    WEST    INDIES. 


voyage  was  smooth  and  prosper- 
1  ous.  The  expedition  reached  the 
Canaries  on  the  ist  of  October,  where 
Columbus  laid  in  a  supply  of  chickens, 
sheep,  goats,  calves,  and  pigs.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  know  that  these  were  the 
pioneer  pigs  of  America.  They  were 
eight  in  number,  and  from  them  descend- 
ed most  of  the  pigs  that  now  inhabit  the 
West  India  islands.  On  October  yth  the 
fleet  again  weighed  anchor,  and  by  order 
of  its  Admiral  steered  in  a  rather  round- 
about direction  for  the  islands  which  were 
supposed  to  lie  south  of  Hispaniola.  Co- 
lumbus was  determined  —  of  course  for  the 
noblest  and  most  public-spirited  reasons  — 
that  no  one  but  himself  should  know  the 
true  route  to  the  New  World  ;  but  his 
trick  of  steering  first  in  one  direction  and 


140  CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS.         [J£t.  57 

then  in  another  could  not  have  had  the 
desired  effect  of  puzzling  any  really  intel- 
ligent sailor.  This  time  whales,  floating 
bushes,  and  other  signs  of  land  were  not 
needed  to  cheer  the  crews,  and  conse- 
quently they  were  not  seen — a  circum- 
stance that  strengthens  in  the  minds  of 
some  persons  the  belief  that  Columbus  on 
his  first  voyage  secretly  dropped  these  signs 
of  land  overboard  from  the  bow  of  his 
vessel,  and  then  called  his  men  to  look  at 
them.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  voyage  a 
heavy  thunder-storm  occurred,  and  while 
it  was  in  progress  lights  were  seen  at 
the  tops  of  the  masts  and  elsewhere  aloft. 
These  electrical  phenomena,  called  by  the 
sailors  "  St.  Elmo's  candles,"  were  received 
with  much  satisfaction  as  evident  tokens 
that  the  saint  was  busily  taking  care  of 
the  vessels.  As  he  is  an  able  and  careful 
saint,  it  is  perhaps  impertinent  to  criti- 
cise his  methods,  but  it  does  seem  rather 
odd  that  he  cannot  take  care  of  a  ship 
without  running  the  risk  of  setting  her  on 
fire  by  the  reckless  use  of  naked  and  un- 


1493]     EXPLORATIONS  IN  WEST  INDIES.      14! 

protected  lights.  This  was  the  only  storm 
of  consequence  that  was  met  on  the  pas- 
sage, and,  thanks  to  St.  Elmo!  it  does  not 
seem  to  have  done  any  harm. 

On  the  3d  of  November,  which  was 
Sunday,  the  island  of  Dominica  was 
sighted,  and  the  usual  hymns  were  sung 
and  prayers  were  said.  So  many  islands 
soon  came  in  sight  that  it  was  difficult  to 
select  one  on  which  to  land.  In  this  em- 
barrassment of  riches,  the  Admiral  finally 
landed  on  an  island  which  he  called  Mari- 
galante,  after  the  name  of  the  flag-ship. 
It  was  a  fair  average  sort  of  island,  but 
after  taking  formal  possession  of  it  and  of 
all  other  islands,  visible  and  invisible,  be- 
longing to  the  same  group,  Columbus 
left  it  and  sailed  to  the  island  of  Guada- 
lupe,  a  few  miles  distant,  where  he  landed 
on  November  4th. 

There  was  a  village  near  the  shore,  but 
the  inhabitants  fled  as  the  Spaniards 
landed,  leaving  behind  them  only  a  few 
useless  babies.  Searching  the  houses, 
Columbus  discovered  the  stern-post  of  a 


I42  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          j>Et.  57 

European  vessel,  which  must  have  drifted 
across  the  Atlantic,  since  it  was  much  too 
large  to  have  been  sent  through  the  Post 
Office,  even  if  we  assume — which  is  gross- 
ly improbable — that  any  native  had  writ- 
ten to  Europe  and  ordered  a  stern-post. 
From  the  number  of  human  bones  which 
were  found  in  the  ash-barrels  and  garbage- 
boxes  at  this  village,  it  was  suspected  that 
the  people  were  cannibals,  as  in  fact  they 
were,  being  no  other  than  the  fierce  and 
cruel  Caribs. 

Pursuing  his  voyage  along  the  coast, 
Columbus  again  landed  and  explored  more 
deserted  villages,  capturing  a  woman  and 
a  boy  who  had  lingered  a  little  too  long 
behind  the  absconding  villagers.  On  re- 
turning to  his  ship,  the  Admiral  was  pained 
to  learn  that  one  of  his  officers,  Captain 
Diego  Marque,  and  eight  men,  who  had 
gone  ashore  without  orders,  had  not  yet 
returned,  and  were  probably  already  under- 
going preparation  for  a  Caribbean  dinner. 
Alonzo  de  Ojeda,  a  young  nobleman  who 
afterward  became  famous  as  one  of  the 


1493]    EXPLORATIONS  IN  WEST  INDIES.      143 

ablest  and  most  cruel  of  Spanish  explorers, 
was  sent  on  shore  in  command  of  a  de- 
tachment to  search  for  the  missing  men, 
and  to  bring  back  as  much  of  them  as 
might  remain  uneaten.  Ojeda  searched  in 
vain,  and  returned  with  the  report  that 
Marque  and  his  comrades  could  not  be 
found,  even  in  the  unsatisfactory  shape  of 
cold  victuals.  Several  women  who  came 
on  board  the  fleet,  announcing  that  they 
were  runaway  slaves,  told  frightful  stories 
of  the  atrocities  perpetrated  by  the  Caribs, 
and  the  missing  men  were  universally  be- 
lieved to  have  been  killed  and  eaten.  At 
last,  after  several  days,  Marque  and  his 
men  appeared  on  the  shore,  extremely 
ragged  and  hungry.  They  had  merely 
lost  themselves  in  the  woods,  and  had  not 
seen  a  single  cannibal.  Of  course  some 
indignation  was  felt  at  this  trivial  end  of 
what  had  been  mistaken  for  a  terrible 
tragedy,  and  Columbus  promptly  punished 
the  delinquents,  ostensibly  for  being  ab- 
sent without  leave. 

On  the  1 4th  of  November,  after  sailing 


144  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [yEt.  57 

hither  and  thither  through  the  Caribbean 
archipelago,  the  fleet  anchored  at  the  island 
of  Santa  Cruz.  The  natives  fled  into  the 
interior  as  usual,  but  a  canoe-load  of  Indi- 
ans made  its  appearance  a  little  later,  and, 
on  being  chased  by  one  of  the  Spanish 
boats,  shot  showers  of  poisoned  arrows  at 
the  pursuers.  After  a  lively  battle,  in 
which  a  Spaniard  was  fatally  wounded  and 
one  of  the  Indians  was  killed,  the  canoe 
was  sunk  and  the  survivors  captured. 
They  were  so  fierce  and  ugly  in  appear- 
ance that  they  were  instantly  judged  to  be 
cannibals  of  the  deepest  dye,  and  were 
loaded  with  chains  and  afterward  sent  to 
Spain  as  curiosities. 

So  many  new  islands  were  now  sighted 
that  Columbus,  whose  stock  of  names  was 
growing1  small,  called  one  of  them.  St. 
Ursula,  and  the  others  her  eleven  thou- 
sand virgins.  It  is  true  that  there  were 
not  eleven  thousand  islands ;  but  as  St. 
Ursula  never  had  eleven  thousand  virgins, 
the  name  was  not  so  extremely  inappro- 


1493]     EXPLORATIONS  IN  WEST  INDIES,       145 

priate.  The  exact  number  of  these  islands 
was  finally  ascertained  to  be  fifty. 

Discovering  Porto  Rico,  and  devoting 
two  days  to  exploring  its  coast-line,  Co- 
lumbus steered  for  Hispaniola,  which  he 
reached  on  the  22d  of  November.  The 
natives  came  off  to  the  fleet  in  boats,  and 
were  remarkably  polite ;  but  Columbus 
did  not  land  until  he  reached  Samana  Bay. 
Here  he  sent  one  of  his  converted  Indians 
on  shore,  dressed  in  the  best  Spanish 
fashion,  with  instructions  to  lecture  to  the 
natives  on  the  grandeur  of  Spain ;  but 
whether  the  lecturer  was  tedious  and  met 
a  deserved  death  at  the  hands  of  his  first 
audience,  or  whether  he  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity to  return  to  the  comforts  of  naked 
paganism,  was  never  known.  In  any  case, 
he  never  returned,  and  it  is  greatly  to  be 
feared  that  in  his  case  the  trouble  and  ex- 
pense of  conversion  were  wasted. 

On  the  25th  the  expedition  anchored  in 
a  harbor  to  which  the  Admiral  gave  the 
name  of  Monte  Christo,  in  honor  of  M. 


CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         |>Et.  57 

Alexandra  Dumas.  On  landing,  the  Span- 
iards were  shocked  to  find  four  bodies,  one 
of  which  was  recognized  by  its  beard  as 
the  body  of  a  Spaniard.  The  circumstan- 
ces in  which  these  bodies  were  found 
showed  that  they  had  been  the  victims  of 
violence,  and  it  was  at  once  feared  that 
the  colony  of  La  Navidad  had  met  with  a 
disaster.  The  natives  said  they  knew 
nothing  about  the  bodies,  and  were  so  in- 
nocent in  their  demeanor  that  no  one 
cared  to  suspect  them  of  murder.  The 
Admiral,  in  an  anxious  frame  of  mind, 
made  haste  to  arrive  at  La  Navidad,  which 
he  reached  on  the  27th,  but  at  too  late  an 
hour  to  venture  to  land.  Guns  were  fired 
and  Coston  night-signals  burned  on  board 
the  fleet,  but  there  was  no  sign  of  life  from 
the  fort.  That  night  a  suspicion  dawned 
upon  the  minds  of  some  of  the  fifteen  hun- 
dred adventurers  that  the  New  World  was 
not  worth  finding,  and  that  colonization 
was  a  delusion  and  a  snare. 

Before  morning   a   canoe  containing  a 
cousin  of  Guacanagari  came  out  to   the 


1493]     EXPLORATIONS  IN  WEST  INDIES.      147 

fleet  in  search  of  Columbus,  bringing  for 
him  some  valuable  presents.  The  visit- 
ors reported  that  Caribs  had  invaded  the 
island,  and  that  Guacanagari  had  been 
wounded  in  battle  with  them,  and  was  at  a 
distant  village  under  the  care  of  a  doctor, — 
whose  certificate  to  that  effect,  however,  he 
failed  to  produce.  As  to  the  colony  of 
La  Navidad,  he  did  not  seem  to  know 
very  much  about  it.  He  said  it  was  his 
impression  that  the  colonists  had  been  sick ; 
he  believed  some  of  them  had  moved  away  ; 
and  he  had  a  vague  idea  that  they  had 
fought  a  little  among  themselves.  Having 
thus  cheered  up  the  Admiral,  the  friendly 
native  returned  to  the  shore,  and  the 
Spaniards  waited  anxiously  for  daylight. 

When  the  day  finally  dawned,  and  the 
Spaniards  prepared  to  land,  they  were  sur- 
prised to  find  that  not  a  native  was  visible. 
On  landing,  they  were  still  more  surprised 
to  find  that  the  colonists  had  totally  disap- 
peared, that  the  fort  was  in  ruins,  and  that 
Guacanagari's  village  was  a  heap  of  ashes. 
From  the  appearance  of  the  fort,  it  was  evi- 


148  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          |>Et.  57 

dent  that  it  had  been  captured  and  sacked. 
Further  search  resulted  in  the  discovery  of 
the  buried  bodies  of  eleven  Spaniards, 
while  in  the  native  houses  farther  in  the 
interior,  from  which  the  inhabitants  hastily 
fled,  were  found  articles  which  had  for- 
merly been  the  property  of  the  missing 
colonists. 

Gradually  the  natives  overcame  their 
fears,  and  came  to  meet  Columbus.  They 
told  a  story  which  was  intrinsically  proba- 
ble, and  doubtless  true.  The  colonists  had 
conducted  themselves  as  sailors  left  to 
themselves  in  a  tropical  climate,  among 
gentle  savages,  might  have  been  expected 
to.  They  refused  to  work,  they  adopted 
polygamy  as  their  chief  occupation,  and, 
not  content  with  quarrelling  among  them- 
selves, they  insulted  and  outraged  the  na- 
tives until  the  latter  began  to  feel  seriously 
provoked.  After  a  time  the  two  lieuten- 
ants of  Don  Diego  de  Arana,  the  Gover- 
nor, headed  a  rebellion  against  him,  but, 
being  defeated,  marched  off  with  nine  men 
and  a  large  supply  of  wives  to  search  for 


1493]     EXPLORATIONS  IN  WEST  INDIES.      149 

gold  in  the  interior.  Reaching  the  domi- 
nions of  the  cacique  Caonabo,  a  powerful 
chief  of  Carib  birth,  they  were  pleasantly 
welcomed  and  cheerfully  put  to  death. 
Being  of  the  opinion  that  there  were  still 
more  Spaniards  on  the  island  than  were 
really  needed,  Caonabo  formed  an  alliance 
with  another  chief  of  like  views,  and,  fall- 
ing upon  the  fort  at  night,  captured  it  and 
massacred  every  colonist  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few  who  saved  themselves  by 
rushing  into  the  sea  and  drowning  in  pri- 
vacy. The  friendly  natives  further  said 
that  they  fought  under  the  leadership  of 
Guacanagari  on  the  side  of  the  Spaniards, 
and  were  badly  beaten. 

A  coasting  expedition  having  discovered 
the  village  where  Guacanagari  was  resid- 
ing, Columbus  went  to  see  him.  He 
found  the  cacique  lying  in  bed,  surrounded 
by  seven  wives  and  suffering  greatly. 
Guacanagari  repeated  the  story  of  the  cap- 
ture of  the  fort,  and  put  in  evidence  his 
wounded  leg,  marked  "  Exhibit  A,"  as 
proof  of  the  truth  of  his  story.  Unfortu- 


ISO  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [yEt.  57 

nately,  no  wound  was  visible,  and  although 
the  cacique  insisted  that  his  leg  had  been 
utterly  ruined  by  a  heavy  stone  which  had 
struck  it,  the  Spanish  surgeon  was  of  opin- 
ion that  nothing  was  the  matter.  Father 
Boyle,  who  was  a  most  zealous  ecclesiastic, 
held  that  this  was  an  excellent  opportunity 
for  showing  the  islanders  the  merits  of  the 
Christian  religion,  and  recommended  that 
Guacanagari  should  be  promptly  burned 
at  the  stake.  But  the  Admiral,  although 
he  admitted  that  it  was  difficult  to  explain 
the  cacique's  leg  in  a  satisfactory  way,  ar- 
gued that  he  would  be  much  more  useful 
raw  than  he  would  if  roasted,  and  to  prove 
this  assertion  exchanged  a  large  quantity 
of  glass  beads  with  the  cacique  for  merely 
their  weight  in  gold.  This  demonstration 
satisfied  the  Spaniards  temporarily,  with 
the  exception  of  Father  Boyle,  who  was 
pained  to  find  Columbus  apparently  sub- 
ordinating Christian  duty  to  a  love  of  gain. 
Guacanagari  went  on  board  the  flag- 
ship with  the  Admiral,  where  he  was 
much  pleased  with  the  horses,  which  he 


1493]    EXPLORATIONS  IN  WEST  INDIES.      !$! 

saw  for  the  first  time,  and  pronounced  to 
be  very  able  and  ingenious  animals.  He 
was  also  observed  to  take  altogether  too 
much  interest  in  ten  women  whom  Co- 
lumbus had  carried  off  from  the  Carib- 
bean islands.  The  conversation  between 
Guacanagari  and  the  Spaniards  is  said  to 
have  been  constrained  and  awkward,  as 
indeed  it  doubtless  was,  for  no  one  could 
converse  easily  and  pleasantly  with  a 
cacique  who  was  constantly  gazing  in 
admiration  at  ten  different  women.  Co- 
lumbus, as  a  token  of  good-will,  hung  an 
image  of  the  Virgin  around  Guacanagari's 
neck,  who,  when  he  learned  that  the 
Christians  worshipped  it,  said  he  would 
rather  not  wear  it,  lest  he  should  become 
a  Christian  and  covet  his  neighbor's  wife 
and  break  his  neighbor's  skull,  like  the 
late  Christian  colonists.  Father  Boyle 
was  more  anxious  to  burn  him  than  ever 
after  hearing  this  blasphemous  remark ; 
but  Columbus  very  properly  said  it  was 
inhospitable  and  unjustifiable  to  burn 
visitors,  except  in  the  case  of  a  surprise- 


I $2  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [&t.  57 

party,  and  that  the  cacique  should  go  on 
shore  safely,  which  he  shortly  did. 

The  next  day  Guacanagari  did  not  re- 
turn to  the  ship,  but  in  his  place  sent  his 
brother,  who  paid  a  great  deal  of  attention 
to  the  Carib  women,  talking  with  them — 
as  he  said — on  scientific  matters.  That 
night  the  ten  Carib  women  jumped  over- 
board and  swam  ashore,  arid  when  the 
Spaniards  landed  in  the  morning  to  search 
for  them,  no  trace  could  be  found  either  of 
the  women  or  of  Guacanagari.  It  was  too 
evident  that  the  cacique  had  fallen  in  love 
ten  deep,  and  had  eloped  with  his  ten  heart's 
idols.  The  Spaniards,  who  of  course  took 
no  interest  in  the  women,  were  shocked 
at  the  painful  example  of  immorality  set 
by  Guacanagari,  and  agreed  that  they 
were  now  convinced  that  he  and  his  hypo- 
critical savages  had  either  betrayed  the 
colonists  to  Caonabo,  or  had  slaughtered 
them  and  then  invented  Caonabo  and  laid 
the  blame  upon  him. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

ATTEMPTS   AT   COLONIZATION. 

UACANAGARI,  in  -his  last  interview 
\J  with  Columbus,  had  advised  him  not 
to  plant  a  new  colony  at  La  Navidad. 
He  said  that,  while  he  was  extremely  anx- 
ious to  have  the  Spaniards  as  neighbors, 
duty  compelled  him  to  admit  that  the 
locality  was  an  unhealthy  one,  and  that 
foreigners  settling  there  were  sure  to  con- 
tract chills  and  fever.  Columbus  shared 
the  opinion  that  it  was  an  unhealthy  place, 
but  he  thought  that  colonists  would  be 
more  apt  to  contract  bloodthirsty  native 
chiefs  than  peaceful  malarious  fever.  At 
any  rate,  he  was  clear  that  it  would  be 
unwise  to  repeat  the  experiment  of  colon- 
ization at  a  place  with  such  unpleasant  as- 
sociations. 

Expeditions  were  sent  along  the  coast 
to  find  a  new  location,  but  as  no  eligible 


I'54  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  58 

building  spots  were  found,  the  fleet  set  sail 
for  Monte  Christo.  About  thirty  miles 
east  of  Monte  Christo  a  fine  harbor  was 
found,  and,  on  landing,  the  Admiral  was  so 
pleased  with  the  place  that  he  resolved  to 
build  a  city  without  further  delay.  The 
ships  were  unloaded,  and  the  animals  were 
set  on  shore.  A  nice  city,  called  the  city 
of  Isabella,  was  then  laid  out,  with  a  church, 
a  government-house,  a  town-pump,  a  cus- 
tom-house, a  jail,  and  everything  that  could 
make  the  colonists  feel  comfortable  and  at 
home. 

This  done,  the  Spaniards,  including  Co- 
lumbus, fell  sick  with  great  unanimity. 
Most  of  them  felt  that  they  could  have 
been  sick  to  more  advantage  in  Spain, 
and  that,  on  the  whole,  they  wanted  their 
money  back.  If  exploration  consisted  in 
crossing  an  inexcusably  wide  ocean  merely 
to  build  houses  among  unsociable  savages, 
and  to  contract  marsh-fever,  they  were 
confident  that  they  had  had  quite  enough 
of  it.  Columbus  knew  that  he  must  soon 
send  the  fleet  back  to  Spain  for  fresh  sup- 


1494]        ATTEMPTS  AT  COLONIZATION.          155 

plies  of  food,  medicine,  and  clothing ;  but 
he  disliked  to  send  home  the  unsatisfactory 
report  that  the  first  set  of  colonists  were 
all  dead,  and  the  second  all  sick.  He 
therefore  ordered  Ojeda  to  get  together  a 
few  comparatively  well  men,  and  to  march 
into  the  interior  and  discover  something 
that  could  be  mentioned  to  advantage  in 
his  official  report. 

With  a  small  force  Ojeda  marched 
across  the  mountain  range  that  lay  back 
of  Isabella,  and  descended  into  a  delight- 
ful plain,  where  every  prospect  pleased 
him,  and  the  natives  were  less  than  usually 
vile.  Gold  was  found  to  be  really  plenti- 
ful, and  when  Ojeda  returned  Columbus 
saw  his  way  clear  to  writing  a  brilliant  re- 
port, and  the  colonists'  spirits  revived. 

Twelve  of  the  ships  were  immediately 
got  ready  for  sea  and  loaded  with  specimens 
of  plants  for  the  Agricultural  Bureau, 
gold  for  the  Spanish  monarchs,  and  Ca- 
ribs  for  the  church.  Columbus,  in  his 
report, .  passed  lightly  and  skilfully  over 
the  unpleasant  features  of  the  expedition, 


1 56  CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS.        [j£t.  58 

and  dwelt  eloquently  upon  the  beauty  of 
the  island,  the  healthful  situation  of  the 
city,  and  the  enormous  wealth  of  the  gold- 
mines. He  also  forcibly  pointed  out  the 
great  need  which  the  cannibal  Caribs  had 
of  being  promptly  converted.  He  pro- 
posed that  Spain  should  send  out  ships 
laden  with  supplies,  which  he  would  pay 
for  with  Carib  slaves,  and  that  when  the 
slaves  reached  Spain  they  could  be  con- 
verted at  little  expense,  and  made  to  do  a 
great  deal  of  work.  Thus  the  cause  of 
missions  could  be  carried  on  at  a  profit  of 
at  least  a  hundred  per  cent  and  a  joint 
stock  company  for  the  enslavement  and 
conversion  of  Caribs  would  be  able  to  de- 
clare large  and  frequent  dividends. 

Columbus  had  always  maintained  that 
his  chief  object  in  discovering  America 
was  to  spread  the  Gospel,  and  this  pro- 
posal to  enslave  the  Caribs  shows  that  he 
was  sincere.  Nevertheless,  Queen  Isa- 
bella said  it  would  be  a  shame  to  make 
the  poor  Caribs  slaves,  and  that  she  was 
surprised  that  Columbus  should  think  of 


1494]       ATTEMPTS  AT  COLONIZATION.          157 

such  a  thing.  Thus  the  Admiral's  great 
missionary  scheme  proved  abortive,  but 
his  arguments  were  afterward  used  with 
great  success  in  defence  of  the  slave-trade 
which  stocked  the  Georgian  and  South 
Carolinian  plantations. 

On  the  2d  of  February,  1494,  the  twelve 
ships  set  sail  for  Spain,  and  Columbus,  felt 
that  unless  the  officers  should  prove  indis- 
creet and  tell  unpleasant  truths,  his  report 
would  be  accepted  as  a  proof  of  the  suc- 
cess of  his  second  great  expedition. 

The  colonists'  spirits  had  been  raised 
by  the  sight  of  the  gold  brought  back  by 
Ojeda,  but  they  fell  to  a  very  low  ebb 
when  the  ships  departed.  The  prospect 
of  remaining  behind  to  die  of  fever,  while 
their  more  fortunate  companions  could  go 
home  and  tell  magnificent  stories  with  no 
one  to  contradict  them,  was  very  depress- 
ing. In  vain  did  Father  Boyle  celebrate  the 
very  highest  kind  of  mass  in  the  church, 
and  in  vain  did  Columbus  put  the  jail  in  the 
best  possible  order.  Nothing  could  make 
the  colonists  feel  contented  and  happy. 


1 58  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [vEt.  58 

In  these  circumstances,  they  naturally 
abused  the  Admiral.  They  said  he  was 
only  an  Italian,  any  way,  and  had  no  right 
to  command  Spanish  gentlemen.  They 
even  went  so  far  as  to  make  personal  and 
disparaging  remarks  concerning  organ- 
grinders,  and  expressed  the  opinion  that 
an  organ-grinder  should  stick  to  his 
monkey  and  refrain  from  meddling  with 
exploration.  There  was  an  alleged  scien- 
tific person  among  them — one  Fermin 
Cedo — who  pretended  there  were  no  gold- 
mines on  the  island.  He  said  he  had  an- 
alyzed the  gold  brought  back  by  Ojeda, 
and  it  was  grossly  adulterated.  He  ad- 
mitted that  the  Indians  did  have  a  little 
real  gold,  but  maintained  that  they  had 
inherited  it  from  their  ancestors  and  could 
not  find  any  more  even  if  they  were  to 
try.  The  malcontents,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Bernal  Diaz,  the  comptroller,  who 
appears  to  have  had  all  the  obstinacy  and 
wrong-headedness  that  pertain  to  that  office 
in  our  own  day,  resolved  to  seize  the  re- 
maining ships  and  return  to  Spain,  leav- 


1494]       ATTEMPTS  AT  COLONIZATION.         1 59 

ing  Columbus  to  enjoy  the  fever  by  him- 
self. Columbus,  however,  discovered  the 
plot  and  immediately  recovered  his  health 
sufficiently  to  arrest  Diaz,  to  punish  the 
least  respectable  of  his  followers,  and  thus 
to  suppress  the  mutiny. 

In  order  to  divert  his  men  from  thoughts 
of  fever  and  mutiny,  the  Admiral  now  pre- 
pared to  lead  an  expedition  into  the  in- 
terior. He  appointed  his  brother  Diego 
Governor  of  Isabella  during  his  absence, 
and  with  four  hundred  men — all,  in  fact, 
who  were  well  enough  to  march — he  set 
out  for  the  gold-bearing  mountains  of 
Cibao.  Following  the  route  taken  by 
Ojeda  the  party  crossed  the  nearest  range 
of  mountains,  and  entered  the  fertile  plain 
previously  mentioned.  The  natives  were 
at  first  greatly  frightened  by  the  horse- 
men ;  and  when  they  discovered  that  a 
horse  and  his  rider  were  not  made  in 
one  piece,  but  could  be  taken  apart,  they 
were  more  than  ever  filled  with  admira- 
tion at  the  mechanical  ingenuity  of  the 
Spaniards. 


l6o  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         |>Et.  58 

Crossing  the  plain,  Columbus  penetrated 
into  the  mountainous  region  of  Cibao,  over 
which  the  Carib  chief  Caonabo  ruled. 
Nothing,  however,  was  seen  of  him,  and 
the  natives  were  as  friendly  as  those  of 
the  plain.  They  brought  gold-dust  and 
small  nuggets  to  Columbus,  and  assured 
him  that  at  the  distance  of  about  a  day's 
march  gold  could  be  found  in  nuggets  of 
the  size  of  a  piece  of  chalk. 

This  originally  meritorious  story  had 
now  become  so  old  that  Columbus  paid 
no  attention  to  it,  knowing  that  if  he 
were  to  march  all  the  rest  of  his  life,  the 
richest  gold-mines  would  always  be  a  lit- 
tle farther  off.  So  he  selected  a  con- 
venient mountain,  where  he  built  a  fort, 
calling  it  St.  Thomas,  which  he  garri- 
soned with  fifty-six  men  commanded  by 
Pedro  Margarite.  There  appears  not  to 
have  been  any  reason  for  building  and 
garrisoning  this  fort,  unless  it  was  a  desire 
on  the  part  of  the  Admiral  to  station  Mar- 
garite and  his  men  where  they  could  not 
take  part  in  any  future  mutiny  in  Isabella. 


1494]        ATTEMPTS  AT  COLONIZATION.          l6l 

Returning  with  the  rest  of  the  force, 
Columbus  reached  Isabella  on  the  2gth 
of  March,  stopping  by  the  way  to  trade 
with  the  natives  and  to  learn  their  method 
of  living.  He  found  the  people  whom  he 
had  left  at  Isabella  in  a  more  gloomy  state 
than  ever.  Their  stock  of  medicines  was 
nearly  exhausted,  and  their  provisions 
were  growing  scarce.  He  was  compelled 
to  put  them  on  half  rations,  and  to  build 
a  mill  for  grinding  corn.  The  mill  was  a 
happy  thought ;  but  when  it  was  built, 
the  colonists  unanimously  agreed  that 
Spanish  gentlemen  could  not  grind  corn 
without  losing  their  self-respect.  Colum- 
bus said  he  rather  thought  they  could,  and 
he  compelled  every  man  to  take  his  turn 
at  grinding,  thereby  confirming  them  in 
the  opinion  that  no  Italian  accustomed  to 
grind  out  "  Annie  Laurie "  and  "  Baby 
Mine"  could  possibly  understand  the  feel- 
ings of  a  gentleman. 

A  messenger  soon  arrived  from  Fort  St. 
Thomas,  announcing  that  Caonabo  was 
about  to  attack  it.  Ojeda  was  therefore 


1 62  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [jEt.  58 

put  in  command  of  three  hundred  and 
ninety-six  men,  and  ordered  to  capture 
Caonabo  and  inaugurate  the  new  jail  with 
him.  Ojeda,  promptly  started,  and  on  his 
way  met  a  Spaniard  who  had  been  robbed. 
Being  a  just  man,  Ojeda  thereupon  seized 
the  cacique  of  the  province,  his  son,  and 
nephew,  and  sent  them  to  Isabella,  where 
Columbus,  filled  with  horror  at  the  crime 
which  they  had  not  committed,  sentenced 
them  to  death — a  sentence  which  he  after- 
ward revoked  in  order  to  show  his  cle- 
mency. 

As  nearly  all  the  able-bodied  colonists 
were  now  in  the  interior,  Columbus 
thought  it  would  be  safe  to  undertake  a 
small  exploring  voyage,  and  so,  leaving 
Don  Diego  in  charge  of  the  city,  he  took 
three  of  the  ships  and  sailed  for  Cuba. 
Had  he  been  a  selfish  and  heartless  man, 
he  might  have  imagined  that  during  his 
absence  the  sick  at  Isabella  would  die, 
and  the  Spaniards  in  the  interior  would 
either  starve  to  death  or  be  killed  by 
Caonabo — thus  ridding  him  of  much  care 


1494]       ATTEMPTS  AT  COLONIZATION.          163 

and  vexation.  As  he  was  not  this  kind 
of  man,  we  can  only  wonder  at  his  sim- 
plicity in  dividing  his  forces  in  the  face 
of  a  cruel  enemy,  and  then  calmly  sailing 
away  with  the  most  useful  of  the  ships. 
He  left  reams  of  written  instructions  to 
Margarite,  Ojeda  and  Don  Diego,  point- 
ing out  to  them  the  wickedness  of  quar- 
relling, and  recommending  them  not  to 
allow  Caonabo  to  exterminate  them.  He 
also  left  Father  Boyle  behind  him,  proba- 
bly because  that  zealous  ecclesiastic's  long- 
ing to  burn  somebody  made  him  an  unsafe 
person  to  take  to  sea,  where  the  utmost 
caution  in  regard  to  fire  is  necessary. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

SEARCH   FOR  CHINA. — SUBJUGATION  OF  HIS- 
PANIOLA. 

ON  the  24th  of  April  Columbus  set  sail, 
determined  this  time  to  reach  the  Em- 
pire of  China.  He  anchored  for  a  night 
at  La  Navidad,  but  saw  nothing  of  Gua- 
canagari.  Sailing  thence,  he  reached  Cuba 
and  began  to  coast  along  the  south  side  of 
the  island.  The  natives  ran  away  as  usual, 
and  were  afterward  coaxed  back  with 
beads.  They  told  him,  with  some  varia- 
tions, the  familiar  story  of  a  gold-bearing 
island  farther  south,  and  Columbus  de- 
cided to  give  them  one  more  chance  to 
prove  its  truth.  He  steered  south  in 
search  of  the  mythical  Babeque,  and  when 
he  came  within  sight  of  a  fine  large  island, 
he  began  to  hope  that  Babeque  was  found 
at  last;  but  it  proved  to  be  only  Jamaica. 
Instead  of  running  away,  the  natives 


1494]  SEARCH  FOR   CHINA.  165 

came  out  in  canoes  to  welcome  the  Span- 
iards with  bloody  lances  to  hospitable 
drowning-places.  Without  stopping  to 
fight  the  first  batch  of  seventy  canoes, 
the  fleet  sailed  on  in  search  of  a  good 
harbor.  When  an  apparently  eligible 
place  for  anchoring  was  found,  a  boat  was 
sent  to  make  soundings,  and  was  attacked 
by  the  natives,  who  swarmed  on  the  beach. 
A  force  was  therefore  landed  to  convince 
the  natives  that  their  conduct  was  impo- 
lite ;  and  after  many  of  them  had  been 
shot  and  the  rest  driven  into  the  woods  in 
terror,  with  a  savage  dog  in  hot  pursuit, 
they  were  convinced  of  their  error.  The 
local  cacique  sent  envoys  and  negotiated  a 
treaty,  after  which  the  Spaniards  were  per- 
mitted to  repair  their  vessels  and  take  in 
water  in  peace.  Columbus  explored  the 
coast  for  some  little  distance  to  the  west- 
ward, but  finding  no  signs  of  gold,  or  of 
the  rum  for  which  it  afterward  became 
famous,  returned  to  Cuba  and  resumed  his 
search  for  China. 

Day  after  day  he  sailed  slowly  westward, 


1 66  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         |>£t.  58 

keeping  near  the  coast  and  frequently 
landing  to  inquire  if  China  was  close  at 
hand.  Sometimes  the  information  he  re- 
ceived gave  him  great  encouragement. 
For  example,  one  able  and  imaginative 
cacique  told  him  of  a  tribe  of  men  with 
tails.  As  it  was  notorious  that  men  with 
tails  inhabited  a  part  of  Asia,  Columbus 
naturally  thought  the  cacique's  story  re- 
ferred to  them,  and  that  he  would  soon 
reach  the  region  described  by  the  vera- 
cious Sir  John  Mandeville.  Another  ca- 
cique told  him  of  a  king  who  habitually 
wore  a  white  garment  and  was  called  a 
saint.  This  king  Columbus  immediately 
identified  with  Prester  John,  though  he 
ought  to  have  remembered  that  no  true 
Presbyterian  would  dream  of  wearing 
white  robes  except  in  the  seclusion  of  his 
bedchamber.  Encouraged  by  these  sto- 
ries, the  hopeful  explorer  sailed  on  toward 
China,  now  narrowly  escaping  shipwreck 
in  the  maze  of  small  islands  known  to  us 
as  the  "  Keys,"  and  now  learning  with  as- 
tonishment what  violent  thunder-storms 


1494]  SEARCH  FOR  CHINA.  167 

the  West  Indies  can  produce  when  they 
are  needed.  At  one  time  the  sea  became 
the  color  of  milk,  which  greatly  alarmed 
the  sailors.  They  said  that  putting  milk 
into  the  sea  was  a  defiance  of  the  laws  of 
nature,  which  provide  that  water  should 
always  be  put  into  milk,  and  that  they  did 
not  like  to  cruise  in  latitudes  where  so  un- 
natural a  practice  was  followed.  Still,  Co- 
lumbus persevered.  Cuba  seemed  really 
to  have  no  end,  or  to  be,  in  other  words,  a 
continent. 

Finally,  at  the  end  of  fifty  days,  when 
not  a  particle  of  China  had  been  found, 
and  the  vessels  were  so  strained  as  to  be 
entirely  unseaworthy,  the  sailors  informed 
Columbus  that  this  thing  had  gone 
quite  far  enough,  and  that  it  was  time  to 
turn  back.  The  Admiral  was  so  sure  that 
Pekin  must  be  within  a  few  days'  sail  that 
he  was  very  anxious  to  pursue  the  voyage, 
but  he  finally  agreed  to  compromise  the 
matter.  He  said  he  would  turn  back, 
provided  every  officer,  sailor,  and  boy 
would  make  an  affidavit  that  Cuba  was  a 


1 68  CHRISTOPHER    COLUMBUS.          [JEt.  58 

part  of  the  mainland  of  Asia.  This  they 
consented  to  do  with  much  alacrity,  and 
when  every  affidavit  had  been  duly  sworn 
in  the  presence  of  a  notary,  Columbus  an- 
nounced that  any  person  who  should  at 
any  time  express  the  view  that  Cuba  was 
an  island  would  be  judged  guilty  of  per- 
jury and  punished  by  a  fine  of  ten  thou- 
sand maravedies,  or  by  a  hundred  lashes 
and  the  amputation  of  the  tongue. 

Having  thus  conclusively  ascertained 
that  Cuba  was  Asia,  he  steered  south-east, 
and  on  the  i3th  of  June  anchored  at  the 
Isle  of  Pines.  Had  he  only  kept  on  his 
voyage  westward  a  day  or  two  longer,  he 
would  have  reached  the  western  extremity 
of  Cuba,  and  would  have  learned  that  it 
was  an  island. 

The  voyage  back  along  the  Cuban  coast 
was  laborious,  the  weather  being  often 
boisterous  and  the  winds  adverse.  The 
sailors  became  so  worn  out  that  Columbus 
was  compelled  to  anchor  in  a  convenient 
harbor  and  live  on  shore  with  his  men  for 
more  than  a  week,  in  order  that  they  might 


1494]  SEARCH  FOR   CHINA,  169 

rest.  Here  he  met  with  a  venerable  ca- 
cique, who  gave  him  excellent  advice  as  to 
his  future  conduct,  and  assured  him  that  if 
he  did  not  treat  the  natives  justly  he  would 
be  punished  in  a  future  world.  Judging 
from  the  report  of  the  cacique's  sermon,  he 
was  almost  as  good  a  Christian  as  Father 
Boyle. 

When  his  men  were  sufficiently  repaired, 
Columbus  sailed  to  Jamaica  and  resumed 
the  exploration  of  its  coast-line.  He 
circumnavigated  the  island  without  meet- 
ing with  any  hostile  demonstrations  from 
the  natives,  and,  although  he  saw  no  gold, 
he  was  kind  enough  to  speak  well  of  Ja- 
maica in  his  official  report.  He  was  rather 
embarrassed  by  a  particularly  gorgeous 
cacique,  arrayed  in  a  cotton  helmet  and 
a  necklace  of  green  stones,  who  with  his 
entire  family  boarded  the  flag-ship  and  in- 
formed the  Admiral  that  he  intended  to 
go  to  Spain  \vith  him.  Columbus  had 
some  difficulty  in  declining  the  cacique's 
company,  but  he  finally  convinced  him  that 
if  he  wished  to  take  passage  he  must  apply 


I/O  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [Ml.  58 

at  the  office  of  the  company  and  provide 
himself  with  tickets  in  the  usual  way.  The 
truth  is,  the  female  part  of  the  cacique's 
family  was  numerous  and  beautiful,  and 
the  judicious  Admiral  feared  that  the 
presence  of  the  ladies  would  seriously  in- 
terfere with  the  duties  of  his  officers. 

On  the  2Oth  of  August  the  fleet  reached 
Hispaniola,  but  Columbus  did  not  recog- 
nize it,  and  fancied  that  he  had  discovered 
a  new  island.  A  day  or  two  later  a  cacique 
came  off  to  meet  him  in  a  canoe,  and,  ad- 
dressing him  in  broken  Spanish,  informed 
him  of  his  true  locality.  Columbus  there- 
fore landed  nine  of  his  men,  with  orders  to 
proceed  to  Isabella  and  report  to  Don 
Diego,  and  then  continued  his  voyage  along 
the  south  coast  of  the  island.  The  winds, 
however,  persistently  opposed  him,  and  he 
was  compelled  to  lie  at  anchor  for  many 
days.  This  slow  progress,  added  to  the 
toils  and  cares  which  he  had  lately  experi- 
enced, told  heavily  on  the  Admiral's  health, 
already  enfeebled  by  his  illness  at  Isabella. 
He  kept  on  his  feet  till  the  last  moment, 


1494]  SEARCH  FOR   CHINA.  I?I 

but  on  the  24th  of  September  was  struck 
down  by  an  an  attack  which  rendered  him 
totally  insensible,  and  in  that  condition  he 
remained  for  several  days,  while  the  fleet 
pursued  its  way  and  finally  reached  Isa- 
bella. 

One  of  the  first  to  welcome  the  Admiral 
when  he  landed  was  his  brother  Bartholo- 
mew. Years  before,  when  Columbus  was 
seeking  some  monarch  who  would  take  an 
interest  in  exploration,  he  sent  Bartholo- 
mew to  England  to  see  if  King  Henry 
VII.  was  that  kind  of  king.  Either  the 
Post  Office  of  the  period  was  badly 
managed,  or  Christopher  Columbus  was 
so  much  occupied  with  thoughts  of  explora- 
tion that  he  forgot  the  existence  of  Bartho- 
lomew. At  any  rate,  neither  brother  ap- 
pears to  have  heard  a  word  from  the  other 
until  Bartholomew  accidentally  learned 
that  the  Admiral  had  actually  discovered 
the  New  World  and  was  on  the  point  of 
fitting  out  a  second  expedition.  Bartholo- 
mew had  at  last  induced  King  Henry  to 
agree  to  give  his  brother  the  command  of 


1/2  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  58 

an  exploring  expedition,  but  of  course  the 
news  from  Spain  rendered  this  agreement 
useless.  Bartholomew  hastened  to  Spain 
by  the  most  rapid  route,  and  when  he 
found  on  arriving  that  his  brother  had 
already  sailed,  he  called  on  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  who  immediately  gave  him  three 
ships  and  sent  him  with  supplies  to  the  new 
colony. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Bartholomew 
Columbus  was  an  able  man,  to  whom  full 
justice  has  never  been  done.  He  was  sent 
to  England  on  an  errand,  and  he  stayed 
till  it  was  accomplished,  although  it  took 
him  ten  years  to  do  it.  Where  is  the  man 
of  the  present  day  who  would  execute  the 
wishes  of  a  brother  with  this  strict  and 
patient  fidelity,  especially  if  during  the 
whole  time  he  should  never  receive  a 
letter  or  a  telegram  from  home?  That 
Bartholomew  was  a  bold  and  skilful  sailor 
is  proved  by  the  fact  that  he  found  his 
way  across  the  Atlantic  to  Isabella  with- 
out any  sailing  directions,  and  in  spite  of 
the  care  that  Christopher  had  taken  to 


1494]  SEARCH  FOR    CHINA.  l?$ 

conceal  the  knowledge  of  the  direct  route. 
Evidently  Bartholomew  could  both  obey 
and  command,  and  there  is  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  he  was  in  any  way  inferior  to 
his  more  famous  brother. 

The  Admiral  appears  to  have  recalled 
without  much  difficulty  the  fact  that  he 
had  once  had  a  brother  Bartholomew,  and 
to  have  readily  recognized  him.  Probably 
he  explained  that,  owing  to  a  pressure  of 
business,  Bartholomew  had  escaped  his 
memory,  and  he  certainly  showed  that 
he  was  glad  to  see  him  by  appointing  him 
Adelantado,  or  Deputy  Governor,  of  His- 
paniola.  As  he  was  still  confined  to  his 
bed,  the  arrival  of  his  brother  was  a  very 
fortunate  thing,  affairs  in  the  colony  being 
in  a  precarious  and  dangerous  state. 

When  Ojeda  and  his  army  had  reached 
Fort  St.  Thomas,  Margarite,  as  ranking 
officer  assumed  the  supreme  command,  and, 
leaving  Ojeda  with  fifty  men  to  garrison 
the  fort,  he  set  out,  ostensibly  to  explore 
the  island  and  intimidate  Caonabo  and 
other  hostile  chiefs.  Instead  of  carrying 


CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [>Et.  58 

out  this  plan,  he  descended  to  the  fertile 
plain  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains,  where 
he  quartered  his  troops  on  the  natives  and 
began  to  enjoy  himself.  Following  his 
example,  the  soldiers  conducted  them- 
selves after  the  usual  manner  of  idle  and 
dissolute  soldiers,  and  in  a  short  time 
earned  the  enthusiastic  hatred  of  the 
natives.  Don  Diego  sent  a  remonstrance 
to  Margarite,  which  that  high-spirited 
gentleman  regarded  as  an  unwarrantable 
liberty.  He  refused  to  acknowledge 
Diego's  authority,  and,  supported  by  his 
officers,  set  him  at  defiance.  When  it  was 
evident  that  the  patience  of  the  natives 
would  soon  be  exhausted,  Margarite  and 
some  of  his  friends,  including  Father 
Boyle — who  had  become  worn  out  by 
vainly  waiting  for  an  opportunity  to  exper- 
iment with  a  combustible  heretic — seized 
one  of  the  ships  and  sailed  away  to  Spain. 
The  soldiers,  being  left  without  any  com- 
mander, lost  all  organization,  and  the  army 
melted  away.  The  natives  found  steady 
and  pleasant  employment  in  killing  them 


1404]  SEARCH  FOR   CHINA.  1 75 

in  small  quantities  at  a  time,  and  about  a 
hundred  of  them  took  refuge  with  our  old 
friend  Guacanagari.  Caonabo  thought 
this  would  be  a  good  opportunity  for  cap- 
turing Fort  St.  Thomas,  and  accordingly  he 
besieged  it  with  a  large  force,  but  after 
thirty  days  withdrew,  completely  baffled 
by  the  bravery  of  Ojeda  and  his  handful  of 
men.  He  then  undertook  to  unite  the 
caciques  in  a  league  against  the  Spaniards, 
and  succeeded  in  inducing  all  of  them  to 
join  him,  with  the  exception  of  Guacana- 
gari. The  latter  went  to  Isabella  soon  af- 
ter Columbus  arrived,  and  warned  him 
that  an  overwhelming  force  was  about  to 
attack  the  city.  Troops  were  sent  out  to 
attack  the  nearest  of  the  hostile  caciques, 
who  was  soon  reduced  to  submission. 

In  the  mean  time,  Ojeda  with  a  small 
escort  went  to  Caonabo's  village  and  in- 
vited the  cacique  to  visit  Columbus  and 
make  a  treaty  with  him,  pledging  him  a 
safe-conduct.  The  cacique,  weakly  be- 
lieving Ojeda's  promise,  accepted  the  invi- 
tation and  started  with  a  small  army  of 


CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [yEt.  58 

followers.  On  the  march  Ojeda  showed 
the  cacique  a  pair  of  handcuffs,  which  he 
said  were  a  decoration  which  the  Spanish 
King  conferred  only  on  the  most  eminent 
of  his  subjects.  Such,  however,  was  the 
high  opinion  that  the  King  had  of  Cao- 
nabo,  that  Ojeda  was  authorized  to  confer 
this  splendid  distinction  upon  him.  As  a 
preliminary,  it  would  be  necessary  for 
Caonabo  to  mount  on  horseback,  the  brace- 
lets being  conferred  only  on  mounted 
knights.  Caonabo,  feeling  himself  highly 
honored,  climbed  on  Ojeda's  horse,  behind 
that  astute  officer,  and  submitted  to  be 
manacled.  No  sooner  was  this  done  than 
Ojeda,  and  his  escort  galloped  away  and 
brought  the  captive  cacique  to  Isabella, 
where  he  was  safely  lodged  in  jail. 

That  Ojeda's  conduct  in  this  affair  was 
treacherous  and  dishonorable  there  can  be 
no  question.  Indeed,  had  he  been  the 
United  States  Government,  and  had  Cao- 
nabo been  a  Black  Hill  Sioux,  he  could 
hardly  have  conducted  himself  more  dis- 
honorably than  he  did. 


1494]  SEARCH  FOR   CHINA.  177 

The  native  league  was  thus  temporarily 
broken  up,  and  the  arrival  of  four  ships 
from  Spain,  bringing,  besides  colonists  and 
stores,  a  doctor  and  an  entire  apothecary's 
shop,  gave  Columbus  strength  enough  to 
get  out  of  bed  before  the  doctor  could  be- 
gin operations  on  him.  The  King  and 
Queen  sent  Columbus  a  letter,  announcing 
that  they  took  their  several  pens  in  hand  to 
say  that  they  were  well  and  hoped  Columbus 
was  enjoying  the  same  blessing,  and  that 
they  had  the  utmost  confidence  in  him. 
This  letter  completed  the  Admiral's  cure, 
and  he  immediately  organized  an  expedi- 
tion against  the  natives,  who  were  about 
to  resume  hostilities  under  the  leadership 
of  a  brother  of  Caonabo. 

Before  setting  out,  he  sent  Diego  back 
to  Spain,  ostensibly  to  look  after  his  in- 
terests. Perhaps  the  true  reason  was  that 
Diego  was  of  very  little  use  and  was  ex- 
tremely unpopular.  He  was  a  well-mean- 
ing man,  but  his  true  sphere  in  life  was 
that  of  a  justice  of  the  peace  in  Connecti- 
cut ;  and  as  Connecticut  was  not  yet  ready 


1 78  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [>Et.  58 

for  him,  Columbus  thought  he  had  better 
go  home  and  wait  until  a  good  opening  in 
East  Lyme  or  Falls  Village  should  present 
itself.  At  the  same  time,  five  hundred 
natives  were  sent  to  Spain  to  be  sold  as 
slaves,  Columbus  remarking  that  he  hoped 
in  this  way  to  prepare  their  precious  souls 
for  the  humanizing  influence  of  the  Gospel. 
Having  seen  Diego  safely  started,  Co- 
lumbus, with  Bartholomew,  two  hundred 
and  twenty  Spaniards,  and  twenty  other 
bloodhounds,  started  to  attack  the  sav- 
ages. He  met  a  hundred  thousand  of 
them — so  the  story  goes — and  defeated 
them  with  great  slaughter.  It  is  very 
probable  that  the  number  of  the  enemy 
was  exaggerated,  and  that  there  were  not 
more  than  ninety-nine  thousand  nine  hun- 
dred and  ninety-six,  with  perhaps  two 
small-boys.  There  is  no  doubt,  however, 
that  they  were  shot  down  by  the  soldiers, 
ridden  down  by  the  horses,  and  mangled 
by  the  dogs  to  an  immense  extent,  and 
that  the  battle  was  a  glorious  triumph  of 
civilization  over  barbarism. 


1494]  SEARCH  FOR   CHINA. 

The  victory  was  followed  up  by  Colum- 
bus with  energy.  He  marched  through 
almost  the  entire  length  and  breadth  of 
the  island,  and  compelled  the  caciques  to 
make  peace  and  pay  a  heavy  tribute  to 
the  Spaniards.  Every  native  was  taxed 
either  a  certain  amount  of  gold  or  its 
equivalent  in  cotton,  according  to  Co- 
lumbus's  view  of  their  relative  value ; 
and  to  secure  his  conquest,  the  Admiral 
built  and  garrisoned  forts  in  different 
parts  of  the  island,  the  most  important 
of  which  was  called  Fort  Concepcion,  and 
was  situated  in  the  beautiful  plain  lying 
back  of  Isabella.  Even  Guacanagari  and 
his  people,  who  had  remained  faithful  to 
Columbus,  were  taxed  as  heavily  as  the 
hostile  natives,  and  that  amiable  cacique 
was  so  disgusted  by  this  reward  of  his 
fidelity  that  he  resigned  his  chieftainship 
and  died  of  what  in  the  case  of  a  white 
monarch  would  be  called  a  broken  heart. 

The  yoke  that  the  Spaniards  had  put 
on  the  native  neck  was  too  heavy  to  be 
borne.  The  savages  resolved  to  starve 


ISO  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [&t.  58 

their  oppressors,  and  with  this  view  de- 
stroyed their  crops  and  retired  to  the 
mountains,  to  live  on  roots  until  the 
Spaniards  should  die  of  starvation.  The 
plan  was  not  successful.  The  Spaniards 
hunted  the  natives  with  dogs  and  dragged 
them  back  to  work  as  slaves.  Within  a 
few  months  the  free  and  happy  people 
who  had  welcomed  the  Spaniards  to  the 
island,  and  were  ready  to  worship  them 
as  superior  beings,  were  converted  into  a 
horde  of  cowed  and  wretched  slaves. 

In  later  years,  when  Columbus  had  seen 
his  own  authority  in  Hispaniola  set  aside, 
and  the  island  under  the  control  of  his 
rivals  and  enemies,  he  protested  that  the 
sight  of  the  sufferings  of  the  unhappy  na- 
tives filled  him  with  grief  and  horror.  It 
was,  however,  to  his  political  advantage 
at  just  that  time  to  have  his  heart  bleed 
for  the  poor  savages,  and  the  unprejudiced 
reader  must  regret  that  it  did  not  bleed  at 
an  earlier  period.  It  was  under  the  im- 
mediate rule  of  Columbus  that  the  natives 
of  Hispaniola  were  first  reduced  to  sla- 


1494]  SEARCH  FOR   CHINA.  l8l 

very,  and  it  was  Columbus  who  made  his 
old  friend  and  faithful  ally,  Guacanagari, 
suffer  the  same  fate  as  the  chiefs  who  had 
rebelled  against  the  Spaniards.  Then  it 
cannot  be  forgotten  that,  in  spite  of  the 
direct  and  repeated  commands  of  Queen 
Isabella,  Columbus  sent  cargo  after  cargo 
of  slaves  to  Spain.  He  may  have  been 
very  sorry  to  see  the  natives  oppressed  by 
Spaniards  whom  he  disliked,  but  he  cer- 
tainly oppressed  them  quite  as  vigorously 
as  did  any  of  his  successors.  The  contrast 
between  his  pious  and  humane  protesta- 
tions and  his  acts  as  an  oppressor  and  a 
slave-trader  is  not  easily  explicable  if  we 
adopt  the  usual  theory  that  he  was  one  of 
the  most  sincere  and  noble  of  men.  We 
may  concede  that  he  was  naturally  kind- 
hearted,  and  that  he  would  have  preferred 
gold-mining  to  slave-hunting ;  but  when 
his  interest  urged  him  to  cruelty,  he  usu- 
ally listened  to  it  with  respectful  attention, 
and  straightway  showed  by  his  conduct 
that,  although  he  was  not  a  countryman 
of  Ojeda  and  Pizarro,  he  was  not  alto- 
gether unfit  to  hold  a  Spanish  commission. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

DIFFICULTIES    AND    DISCOURAGEMENTS. 

1VTARGARITE  and  Father  Boyle,  as 
iVl  has  been  mentioned,  had  sailed  for 
Spain  while  Columbus  was  absent  on  his 
cruise  in  search  of  China.  Arriving  in 
Spain,  they  told  a  series  of  able  and  effect- 
ive falsehoods,  judiciously  seasoned  with  a 
little  genuine  truth.  They  said  it  gave 
them  the  greatest  pain  to  speak  in  dis- 
paraging terms  of  their  superior  officer, 
but  a  stern  sense  of  duty  compelled  them 
to  say  that  the  misguided  man  was  a  liar 
and  a  scoundrel.  All  the  Admiral's  sto- 
ries of  fertile  islands,  rich  gold-mines,  de- 
lightful climate,  and  amiable  heathens 
clamoring  for  conversion,  were  without  any 
foundation.  Hispaniola  was  a  wretched, 
fever-stricken  place,  wholly  unfit  for  colo- 
nization. As  for  Columbus  and  his  brother 
Bartholomew,  they  were  cruel  tyrants,  who 


1495]  DIFFICULTIES.  183 

required  Spanish  gentlemen  to  work  and 
made  sick  men  get  out  of  their  beds, 
where  they  were  comparatively  comforta- 
ble, in  order  to  engage  in  ridiculous  expe- 
ditions after  gold  that  never  existed.  Of 
the  two,  Don  Bartholomew  was  perhaps 
the  more  objectionable,  which  was  un- 
fortunate, inasmuch  as  the  Admiral,  hav- 
ing put  to  sea  in  search  of  more  of  his 
worthless  islands,  had  undoubtedly  been 
drowned. 

It  must  be  confessed  that,  in  one  re- 
spect, Margarite  and  Boyle  did  tell  the 
truth.  There  were  chills  and  fever  in 
the  new  colony,  and  when  the  King  and 
Queen  saw  the  returned  colonists  visibly 
shaking  before  them,  they  believed  in  the 
unhealthfulness  of  Hispaniola  and  all  the 
accompanying  lies  told  by  the  malicious 
and  malarious  complainants.  They  there- 
fore resolved  to  send  one  Diego  Carillo  to 
Hispaniola  as  an  investigating  committee, 
to  ascertain  if  there  was  anybody  capable 
of  telling  the  exact  truth  about  the  state 
of  affairs. 


1 84  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [,«Et.  59 

But  before  Carillo  could  sail,  Don  Diego 
Columbus  arrived,  and  as  he  brought  con- 
siderable gold  with  him,  the  monarchs 
formed  the  opinion  that  he  had  the  air  of 
a  man  of  strict  veracity.  He  admitted 
that  there  was  a  part  of  the  island  of  His- 
paniola,  a  long  distance  from  the  colony, 
where  it  was  said  that  chills  and  fever  pre- 
vailed, and  he  was  inclined  to  believe  that 
the  report  was  true.  As  for  the  climate 
of  Isabella  and  its  vicinity,  he  regarded  it 
as  exceptionally  healthful.  He  reported 
that  the  Admiral  had  positively  been  to 
the  mainland  of  China,  and  regretted  that 
he  had  thoughtlessly  forgotten  to  bring 
back  confirmatory  tea-chests. 

Don  Diego  further  assured  the  King 
and  Queen  that  since  the  fortunate  de- 
parture from  Hispaniola  of  two  objection- 
able persons  whom  he  would  not  name, 
but  who,  he  was  informed,  had  recently 
arrived  in  Spain  with  a  full  cargo  of  as- 
sorted falsehoods,  the  affairs  of  the  colony 
had  been  very  prosperous.  Of  course,  to 
bold  and  restless  spirits  there  was  a  certain 


DIFFICUL  TIES.  1 8  5 

monotony  in  swinging  in  hammocks  all 
day  long,  and  eating  delicious  fruit,  in  a 
climate  that  was  really  perfect,  and  there 
were  men  who  even  grew  tired  of  picking 
up  nuggets  of  gold ;  but  Don  Diego  was 
confident  that,  with  a  very  few  exceptions, 
the  colonists  enjoyed  their  luxurious  life 
and,  on  the  whole,  preferred  Hispaniola  to 
Paradise. 

Ferdinand  and  Isabella  weighed  the  gold 
brought  by  Don  Diego,  and  decided  to 
believe  him.  They  thereupon  cancelled 
Carillo's  appointment,  and  appointed  in 
his  place  Juan  Aguado,  a  personal  friend 
of  Columbus,  who,  it  was  understood, 
would  go  to  Hispaniola  in  the  character 
of  a  visiting  statesman,  and,  after  examin- 
ing such  witnesses  as  Columbus  might 
introduce  to  him,  would  return  home  and 
make  a  report  that  would  completely  sat- 
isfy the  Admiral. 

In  spite  of  this  apparently  friendly  ac- 
tion, they  gave  Columbus  just  cause  of 
complaint  by  throwing  open  the  business 
of  exploration,  the  monopoly  of  which 


1 86  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [J£t.  59 

they  had  formally  given  to  him.  They 
authorized  any  Spaniard  to  fit  out  ex- 
ploring expeditions,  under  certain  restric- 
tions, and  to  discover  continents,  islands, 
and  seas,  without  any  limitation  as  to  num- 
ber ;  the  discoverers  to  pay  the  Crown  one 
third  of  all  the  gold  they  might  find.  Co- 
lumbus was  greatly  grieved  at  this,  not  only 
because  he  feared  that  injudicious  explorers 
would  discover  unhealthy  islands,  and 
would  thus  bring  exploration  into  disrepute, 
but  because  it  was  a  distinct  breach  of  faith 
on  the  part  of  the  King  and  Queen.  As 
for  the  gracious  permission  which  they 
gave  him  to  freight  a  vessel  to  trade  with 
the  New  World  whenever  any  other  ex- 
plorer should  freight  one  for  the  like  pur- 
pose, he  evidently  did  not  trust  himself 
to  express  his  opinion  of  such  a  hollow 
mockery  of  his  rights. 

In  August,  1495,  Don  Juan  Aguado 
sailed  for  Hispaniola  with  a  fleet  loaded 
with  supplies  and  a  pocket  filled  with  a 
royal  decree,  written  on  the  best  of  parch- 
ment and  ordering  that  the  colony  of 


1495]  DIFFICULTIES.  1 87 

Isabella  should  consist  of  not  over  five 
hundred  people.  The  astute  monarchs 
had  perceived  that  the  larger  the  colony 
might  be  the  more  numerous  and  contra- 
dictory would  be  the  complaints  which  the 
colonists  would  make,  and  hence  they  re- 
solved to  limit  the  complaint-producing 
capacity  of  the  colony,  and  to  render  it 
impossible  for  more  than  five  hundred 
distinct  accounts  of  the  infamy  of  Colum- 
bus and  the  climate  to  be  brought  to  their 
royal  ears. 

As  Aguado  was  supposed  to  be  a  firm 
friend  of  the  Admiral,  Don  Diego  Colum- 
bus decided  to  return  with  him  to  Isabella, 
which  he  accordingly  did,  arriving  some 
time  in  October.  We  can  imagine  how 
glad  Columbus  must  have  been  to  find 
that  his  good  though  tedious  brother's 
affection  forbade  him  to  desert  his  own 
dear  Christopher.  The  latter  was  in  the 
interior  when  Aguado  arrived,  and  that 
officer  immediately  proceeded  to  astonish 
Don  Bartholomew  by  putting  on  what 
Bartholomew  rightly  characterized  as  airs. 


1 88  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         |>£t.  59 

Aguado  announced  that  he  had  come  to 
put  things  to  rights,  and  that  the  colonists 
now  had  a  real  friend  to  whom  they 
could  complain  when  insulted  and  op- 
pressed by  domineering  Italians.  As  Isa- 
bella was  undoubtedly  a  dull  place,  the 
colonists  eagerly  availed  themselves  of  the 
new  occupation  of  making  complaints 
against  Columbus  and  his  brother,  and 
displayed  a  promptness  and  industry  of 
which  they  had  never  before  given  any 
signs.  Don  Bartholomew  instantly  sent 
word  to  his  brother  that  a  new  and  alarm- 
ing kind  of  lunatic  had  arrived  from 
Spain,  with  a  royal  commission  authorizing 
him  to  raise  the  great  adversary  of  man- 
kind, and  that  the  sooner  the  Admiral  re- 
turned the  better. 

Columbus  hastened  to  Isabella,  where 
he  greeted  Aguado  with  such  overwhelm- 
ing politeness  that  the  fellow  became 
wretchedly  unhappy.  He  had  hoped  to 
be  able  to  report  that  Columbus  had  in- 
sulted him  and  treated  the  royal  commis- 
sion with  contempt,  but  he  was  disap- 


1495]  DIFFICULTIES.  189 

pointed.  He  was  a  little  cheered  up, 
however,  by  a  tremendous  hurricane 
which  wrecked  all  the  Spanish  ships  ex- 
cept one,  and  kept  the  air  for  a  time 
full  of  Spanish  colonists,  natives,  and 
fragments  of  ruined  buildings.  This  he 
thought  would  read  very  well  in  his  in- 
tended report  on  the  general  infamy  of  the 
climate,  and,  despairing  of  obtaining  any- 
thing better,  he  resolved  to  return  to 
Spain  as  soon  as  a  new  vessel  could  be 
built.  The  Admiral  announced  that  he 
intended  to  return  with  him,  a  piece  of 
news  that  greatly  discontented  Aguado, 
who  foresaw  that  after  he  had  made  his 
report  concerning  Columbus  the  latter 
would  be  entirely  capable  of  making  a  re- 
port concerning  Aguado. 

About  this  time  a  young  Spaniard  ar- 
rived from  the  interior  with  a  most  wel- 
come story.  He  had  run  away  from  Isa- 
bella on  account  of  having  nearly  killed  a 
fellow-colonist,  and  had  met  a  beautiful 
female  cacique  living  on  the  river  Ozema, 
near  the  present  site  of  San  Domingo, 


CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS,          |yEt.  60 

who  had  fallen  violently  in  love  with  him. 
From  her  he  had  learned  of  rich  gold- 
mines, and  he  humbly  trusted  that  Colum- 
bus would  condescend  to  look  at  them 
and  to  overlook  his  little  indiscretion  in 
the  matter  of  his  fellow-colonist.  The 
Admiral,  secretly  feeling  that  any  man 
who  killed  one  of  his  colonists  was  a  bene- 
factor of  the  human  race,  kindly  forgave 
him  and  went  with  him  to  inspect  the 
mines,  which  he  found  to  be  apparently  so 
rich  that  he  instantly  overhauled  his  Old 
Testament  and  his  Geography,  and  de- 
cided that  he  had  found  the  original  land 
of  Ophir. 

A  new  scientific  person,  who  had  been 
sent  out  to  supersede  the  worthless  Fermin 
Cedo,  was  ordered  to  take  his  crucibles, 
transit  instruments,  and  other  appara- 
tus, and  make  a  satisfactory  assay  of  the 
mines.  He  did  so,  and,  being  a  clever 
man,  reported  to  the  Admiral  that  the 
gold  was  unusually  genuine,  and  that  the 
ore  would  probably  average  three  hundred 
dollars  to  the  ton.  At  least,  that  is  what 


1496]  DIFFICULTIES.  IQI 

he  would  have  reported  had  he  been  a 
modern  expert  investigating  mining  pro- 
perty in  behalf  of  British  capitalists,  and 
we  need  not  suppose  that  there  were  no 
able  assayers  prior  to  the  discovery  of 
silver  in  Colorado.  Columbus  read  the 
report,  expressed  a  high  opinion  of  the  sci- 
entific abilities  of  the  assayer,  and  ordered 
a  fort  to  be  built  in  the  neigborhood  of 
the  mines. 

Carrying  with  him  specimens  of  gold 
from  the  new  mines,  and  the  report  of  the 
scientific  person,  Columbus  sailed  for 
Spain,  in  company  with  Aguado,  on  the 
zoth  of  March,  1496.  He  left  Don  Bar- 
tholomew as  Governor  during  his  absence, 
and  took  with  him  the  captive  chief  Cao- 
nabo,  either  as  a  specimen  of  the  kind  of 
heathen  produced  by  the  island,  or  because 
he  thought  it  might  be  possible  to  convert 
the  chief  with  the  help  of  the  many  appli- 
ances in  the  possession  of  the  church  at 
home.  He  wisely  refrained  from  taking 
any  slaves,  Don  Diego  having  informed 
him  that  the  Queen  had  ordered  his  previ- 


I Q2  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [^Et.  60 

ous  consignment   of  five   hundred  to  be 
sent  back  to  Hispaniola  and  set  at  liberty. 

The  homeward-bound  fleet  consisted  of 
only  two  vessels,  but  they  met  with  as  much 
head-wind  as  if  they  had  been  a  dozen 
ships  of  the  largest  size,  and  on  the  loth 
of  April  they  were  compelled  to  stop  at 
Guadaloupe  for  water  and  provisions.  Here 
they  were  attacked  by  armed  women  as 
well  as  men.  Several  of  these  early 
American  advocates  of  the  equality  of  the 
sexes  were  captured,  and  set  at  liberty 
again  when  the  ships  sailed.  One  of  them, 
however,  improved  the  time  by  falling  in 
love  with  Caonabo,  whom  she  insisted  upon 
accompanying,  and  Columbus  consented 
to  carry  her  to  Spain  as  a  beautiful  illus- 
tration of  the  affectionate  character  of  the 
Western  heathen. 

It  was  the  2oth  of  April  when  the  fleet 
left  Guadaloupe,  and  Cadiz  was  not  reached 
until  the  nth  of  June.  The  provisions 
were  so  nearly  exhausted  that  during  the  lat- 
ter part  of  the  voyage  the  sailors  were  almost 
in  a  state  of  starvation.  Of  course,  when 


1 4g6]  DIFFICULTIES.  193 

the  provisions  were  scarce  and  the  men 
were  put  on  short  allowance,  the  prisoner 
Caonabo  and  his  affectionate  female  friend 
received  their  share  of  food,  for  Columbus 
would  never  have  permitted  the  unfortu- 
nate pair  to  starve.  Still,  it  did  happen 
that  Caonabo  died  on  the  voyage,  and  his- 
tory is  silent  as  to  what  became  of  his 
companion. 

The  returned  colonists  told  dismal  sto- 
ries of  their  sufferings,  but  their  stories 
were  superfluous.  Their  wretched  appear- 
ance ;  the  way  in  which  they  clung  to  the 
lamp-posts  and  shook  them  till  the  glass 
rattled ;  and  the  promptness  with  which 
they  rushed  into  the  drug-stores  and  de- 
manded— each  for  himself,  in  a  single  breath 
— •"  Six  -  dozen-two-grain  -  quinine-pills-and- 
be  -  quick  -  about  -  it !"  furnished  sufficient 
evidence  of  the  sort  of  climate  in  which 
they  had  lived.  It  was  useless  for  Colum- 
bus and  his  friends  to  say  that  the  appear- 
ance and  conduct  of  the  shaking  colonists 
were  due  to  sea-sickness  and  long  confine- 
ment on  shipboard  without  proper  pro- 


194  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.    |>Et.  60-62 

visions.  The  incredulous  public  of  Cadiz 
could  not  be  thus  imposed  upon,  and  the 
visible  facts  as  to  the  colonists  offset  in 
the  popular  mind  the  magnificent  stories 
of  the  mines  of  Ophir  which  the  Admiral 
circulated  as  soon  as  he  landed.  The 
monarchs  sent  him  a  courteous  invita- 
tion to  visit  the  court,  but  he  was  in  great 
doubt  as  to  the  kind  of  reception  which 
Margarite,  Father  Boyle,  and  Aguado 
would  prepare  for  him.  In  order  to  show 
that  he  felt  himself  greatly  humiliated  by 
the  credence  which  had  been  given  to  the 
reports  against  him,  he  dressed  himself  in 
a  Franciscan's  coarse  gown,  and  let  his 
beard  grow.  On  his  way  to  court  he 
paraded  some  thirty  Indians  whom  he  had 
brought  with  him,  dressed  principally  in 
gold  bracelets,  and  thereby  created  the 
false  and  alarming  impression  on  the  pub- 
lic mind  that  the  Black  Crook  had  broken 
out  with  much  violence. 

The  King  and  Queen,  when  they  saw 
the  gold  that  Columbus  had  brought,  and 
read  the  scientific  person's  certificates  that 


1496-98]  DIFFICULTIES.  195 

it  was  genuine,  decided  to  disregard  all 
the  complaints  against  the  Admiral. 
Aguado  had  nothing  to  repay  him  for 
his  long  voyage,  and  no  one  would  listen 
to  his  report.  It  is  believed  that  he  final- 
ly published  it  as  an  advertisement  at  so 
much  a  line  in  the  local  Cadiz  paper,  and 
sent  marked  copies  to  all  his  friends.  If 
so,  he  benefited  no  one  but  the  printers, 
and  did  Columbus  no  apparent  injury. 

Columbus  was  promised  eight  ships  for 
a  third  exploring  expedition,  but  the 
money  was  not  in  the  treasury,  or,  at  all 
events,  the  King  and  Queen  could  not 
make  up  their  minds  to  spare  it.  They 
were  engaged  in  two  or  three  expensive 
wars  and  one  or  two  difficult  marriages, 
and  were  really  quite  pinched  for  money. 
At  last,  however,  they  gave  Columbus  an 
order  for  the  amount ;  but  before  it  was 
paid,  Pedro  Alonzo  Nino,  who  had  been 
sent  with  supplies  to  Hispaniola,  returned 
to  Cadiz  and  announced  that  his  ships 
were  filled  with  gold.  The  monarchs 
therefore  recalled  their  order,  and  in  its 


196  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS,    [JEt.  60 

stead  gave  Columbus  a  draft  on  Nino,  to 
be  paid  from  his  cargo  of  gold.  Further 
investigation  showed  that  Nino  had  spo- 
ken figuratively,  and  that  he  had  no  actual 
gold,  but  only  a  cargo  of  slaves,  who,  he 
estimated,  would  bring  more  or  less  gold 
if  sold  in  the  market. 

Meanwhile  the  monarchs  had  appropri- 
ated all  their  ready  money  for  purposes  of 
slaughter  and  matrimony,  and  so  were 
compelled  to  decline  advancing  funds  for 
the  new  expedition  until  their  business 
should  improve. 

Columbus  had  already  lost  much  of  his 
original  popularity,  and  was  daily  losing 
what  remained.  That  he  had  discovered 
new  countries  nobody  denied ;  but  the 
complaint  was  that  he  had  selected  cheap 
and  undesirable  countries.  The  Queen, 
however,  still  admired  and  trusted  him, 
for  the  Admiral  was  a  man  of  remarkably 
fine  personal  appearance.  She  confirmed 
all  the  previous  honors  and  privileges  that 
had  been  promised  to  him,  which  looks  as 
if  in  those  days  a  royal  promise  became 


1496-98]  DIFFICULTIES.  1 97 

outlawed,  as  the  lawyers  say,  in  one  or 
two  years  unless  it  was  renewed — a  rule 
which  must  have  greatly  simplified  the 
practice  of  diplomacy.  Inasmuch  as  there 
had  been  a  vast  excess  of  expenses  over 
receipts  in  the  exploration  business,  Co- 
lumbus was  released  from  the  obligation 
to  pay  an  eighth  of  the  cost  of  every  ex- 
pedition, and  was  given  a  large  tract  of 
land  in  Hispaniola,  with  the  title  of  Duke, 
which  title  he  refused,  since  it  was  inferior 
in  rank  to  his  title  of  Admiral. 

While  waiting  for  the  expedition  to  be 
made  ready,  Columbus  improved  the  time 
by  making  his  will.  In  this  document  he 
committed  the  task  of  recovering  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  to  his  son  Diego,  and  directed 
him  to  save  up  his  money  by  putting  it 
in  the  savings  bank,  until  he  should  have 
enough  to  pay  for  a  crusade.  Curiously 
enough,  Don  Diego  never  was  able  to  ac- 
cumulate the  necessary  sum,  and  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  is  still  waiting  to  be  delivered. 
It  was  wise,  however,  in  the  Admiral  to 
delegate  this  great  duty  to  his  son,  and 


198  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [>Et.  62 

thus  to  free  himself  from  an  obligation 
which  could  not  but  interfere  with  the 
business  of  exploration.  The  more  we  can 
shift  our  burdens  upon  our  descendants, 
the  better  time  we  shall  have.  This  is  the 
great  principle  upon  which  all  enlightened 
nations  base  their  financial  policy. 

Early  in  1498  the  royal  business  had  so 
far  improved  that  two  vessels  loaded  with 
supplies  were  sent  to  Hispaniola,  and 
preparations  were  made  for  fitting  out  a 
fleet  of  six  ships  and  a  force  of  five  hun- 
dred men.  The  five  hundred  men  were 
not  easily  found.  It  was  the  popular  be- 
lief that  chills  and  fever  were  not  worth 
the  trouble  of  so  long  a  voyage,  and  that 
there  was  little  else  to  be  got  by  serving 
under  Columbus.  In  this  emergency,  the 
sentences  of  criminals  in  the  Spanish  jails 
were  commuted  to  transportation  to  the 
New  World,  and  a  pardon  was  offered  to 
all  persons  for  whom  the  police  were  look- 
ing— with  the  exception  of  heretics  and  a 
few  other  choice  criminals — who  should 
surrender  themselves  and  volunteer  to  join 


1498]  DIFFICULTIES.  199 

the  fleet.  In  this  way  the  required  num- 
ber of  men  was  gradually  obtained.  In 
point  of  moral  character  the  expedition 
might  have  competed  with  an  equal  num- 
ber of  Malay  pirates  or  New  York  plumb- 
ers. We  are  even  told  that  some  hardened 
and  habitual  musicians  were  thus  carried 
by  Columbus  to  the  once  peaceful  and 
happy  island  of  Hispaniola,  taking  with 
them  their  accordions  and  guitars.  This 
is  a  blot  upon  the  Admiral's  character 
which  his  most  ardent  admirers  cannot 
overlook 


CHAPTER  XV. 

HIS    THIRD    EXPEDITION. 

perseverance  of  Columbus  tri- 
1  umphed  over  all  obstacles.  The  ex- 
pedition was  finally  ready,  and  on  the 
3Oth  of  May,  1498,  the  Admiral  went  on 
board  the  flag-ship  and,  after  remarking 
"All  ashore  that's  goin' !"  and  "All 
aboard !"  rang  the  final  bell  and  started 
once  more  for  the  New  World.  Just  as 
he  was  about  to  embark,  one  Breviesca,  a 
clerk  in  the  Indian  Agents'  Bureau,  met 
him  on  the  wharf  and  told  Columbus  that 
he  would  never  return. 

"What,  never?"  exclaimed  the  aston- 
ished Admiral. 

"Well,  hardly  ever,"  replied  the  mis- 
creant. 

Of  course  Columbus  instantly  knocked 
him  down,  and  went  on  board  his  vessel 
in  a  just  but  tremendous  rage.  He  wTrote 


1498]  HIS    THIRD  EXPEDITION.  2OI 

to  the  Queen,  informing  her  of  the  affair, 
and  sincerely  regretting  that  he  had  lost 
his  temper.  Long  afterwards  his  enemies 
were  accustomed  to  refer  to  the  brutal 
way  in  which  he  had  attacked  an  estima- 
ble and  inoffensive  gentleman,  as  a  proof 
of  his  ungovernable  temper,  his  Italian 
fondness  for  revenge,  and  his  general  un- 
fitness  for  any  post  of  responsibility. 

The  fleet  steered  first  for  Madeira,  and 
then  for  the  Canary  Islands,  touching  at 
both  places ;  and  at  the  latter  surprising— 
as  historians  assure  us — a  French  privateer 
with  two  Spanish  prizes.  What  there  was 
about  Columbus  or  his  fleet  that  was  so 
surprising,  has,  of  course,  been  left  to  our 
imagination,  in  accordance  with  the  habit 
of  historians  to  omit  mentioning  details 
of-  real  interest.  The  Frenchman  was  at- 
tacked by  the  Spaniards,  but  managed  to 
escape  together  with  one  of  his  prizes. 
The  other  prize  was  retaken  by  the  Span- 
ish prisoners  on  board  of  her,  and  given  up 
to  Columbus,  who  turned  the  vessel  over 
to  the  local  authorities. 


2O2  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [J£t.  62 

From  the  Canaries  the  fleet  sailed  to 
the  Cape  Verde  Islands,  where  the  Admi- 
ral divided  his  forces.  Three  ships  he 
sent  direct  to  Hispaniola,  and  with  the 
other  three  he  steered  in  a  south-westerly 
direction,  to  make  new  discoveries.  He 
soon  discovered  the  hottest  region  in 
which  he  had  ever  yet  been — the  great 
champion  belt  of  equatorial  calms.  There 
was  not  a  breath  of  wind,  and  the  very 
seams  of  the  ships  opened  with  the  in- 
tense heat.  It  was  evident  to  the  sailors 
that  they  must  be  very  close  to  the  region 
where,  according  to  the  scientific  persons 
of  the  period,  the  sea  was  perpetually  boil- 
ing, and  they  began  to  fear  that  they  would 
be  roasted  before  the  boiling  process  could 
begin.  Luckily,  a  gentle  breeze  finally 
sprung  up,  and  Columbus,  abandoning  the 
rash  attempt  to  sail  farther  south,  steered 
directly  west,  and  soon  passed  into  a  com- 
forting, cool,  and  pleasant  climate. 

On  the  3ist  of  July  he  discovered  the 
island  of  Trinidad,  and  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  his  ships  were  leaky,  his  water  almost 


1498]  HIS   THIRD  EXPEDITION. 

gone,  and  his  body  alternately  shaken  by 
fever  and  twisted  by  gout,  it  was  high 
time  that  land  should  have  been  found. 

The  following  day  the  flag-ship  was  sud- 
denly attacked  by  a  canoe  full  of  fierce 
natives,  who  threw  spears  and  other 
unpleasant  things  at  the  Spaniards,  and 
fought  with  great  bravery.  Columbus, 
determined  to  strike  terror  into  the  ene- 
my, ordered  his  musicians  to  assemble  on 
deck  and  play  familiar  airs — probably  from 
"  Pinafore."  The  result  surpassed  his  most 
sanguine  expectations.  The  unhappy  na- 
tives fled  in  wild  dismay  as  soon  as  the 
music  began,  and  yelled  with  anguish 
when  the  first  cornet  blew  a  staccato 
note,  and  the  man  with  the  bass  trombone 
played  half  a  tone  flat.  When  we  re- 
member that  the  good  Queen  Isabella 
had  particularly  ordered  Columbus  to 
treat  the  natives  kindly,  we  must  earnest- 
ly hope  that  this  cruel  incident  never 
came  to  her  presumably  pretty  ears. 

The  fleet  was  now  off  the  south  shore  of 
Trinidad,  and  the  mainland  was  in  plain 


2O4  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [&t.  62 

sight  farther  west.  Columbus  at  first  sup- 
posed that  the  mainland  was  only  another 
island,  and  after  taking  in  water  he  sailed 
west,  with  the  intention  of  sailing  beyond 
it.  Passing  through  the  narrow  strait  be- 
tween Trinidad  and  the  continent,  he  en- 
tered the  placid  Gulf  of  Paria,  where  to  his 
astonishment  he  found  that  the  water  was 
fresh.  Sailing  along  the  shore,  he  landed 
here  and  there  and  made  friendly  calls  on 
the  natives,  whom  he  found  to  be  a  pleas- 
ant, light-colored  race,  with  a  commend- 
able fondness  for  exchanging  pearls  for 
bits  of  broken  china  and  glass  beads. 
No  opening  could  be  found  through  which 
to  sail  farther  westward,  and  Columbus 
soon  came  to  the  opinion  that  he  had 
this  time  reached  the  continent  of  Asia. 

One  thing  greatly  astonished  him.  He 
had  been  fully  convinced  that  the  nearer  he 
should  approach  the  equator  the  blacker 
would  be  the  people  and  the  hotter  the 
climate.  Yet  the  people  of  Paria  were 
light-colored,  and  the  climate  was  vastly 
cooler  than  the  scorching  regions  of  the 


i4yS]  HIS   THIRD  EXPEDITION.  20$ 

equatorial  calms.  Remembering  also  the 
remarkable  conduct  of  the  stars,  which 
had  materially  altered  their  places  since  he 
had  left  the  Cape  Verde  Islands,  and  re- 
flecting upon  the  unusual  force  of  the  cur- 
rents which  had  latterly  interfered  severe- 
ly with  the  progress  of  the  ship,  Columbus 
proceeded  to  elaborate  a  new  and  attrac- 
tive geographical  theory.  He  wrote  to 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  that,  in  his  opin- 
ion, the  world  was  not  exactly  round,  like 
a  ball  or  an  orange,  as  he  had  hitherto 
maintained,  but  that  it  was  shaped  like  a 
large  yellow  pear.  He  assumed  that  the 
region  which  he  had  now  reached  corre- 
sponded to  the  long  neck  of  the  pear,  near 
the  stem,  as  it  appears  when  the  pear  is 
resting  on  its  larger  end.  He  had  conse- 
quently sailed  up  a  steep  ascent  since  leav- 
ing Spain,  and  had  by  this  means  reached 
a  cool  climate  and  found  light-colored 
heathen. 

This  was  a  very  pretty  theory,  and  one 
which  ought  to  have  satisfied  any  reasona- 
ble inventor  of  geographical  theories  ;  but 


206  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [yEt.  62 

Columbus,  warming  with  his  work,  pro- 
ceeded still  further  to  embellish  it.  He 
maintained  that  the  highest  point  of  the 
earth  was  situated  a  short  distance  west  of 
the  coast  of  Paria,  and  that  on  its  apex  the 
Garden  of  Eden  could  be  found.  He  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  the  Garden  was 
substantially  in  the  same  condition  as  when 
Adam  and  Eve  left  it.  Of  course  a  few 
weeds  might  have  sprung  up  in  the 
neglected  flower-beds,  but  Columbus  was 
confident  that  the  original  tree  of  the 
knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  and  the  con- 
versationally disposed  animals,  were  all  to 
be  found  in  their  accustomed  places.  As 
for  the  angel  with  the  two-edged  sword, 
who  had  been  doing  sentry  duty  at  the 
gate  for  several  thousand  years,  there  could 
be  no  doubt  that  should  an  explorer  pre- 
sent to  him  a  written  pass  signed  by  the 
Pope,  the  angel  would  instantly  admit  him 
into  the  Garden. 

Columbus  now  felt  that,  whatever  fail- 
ures might  seem  to  characterize  his  new 
exploring  expedition,  he  had  forever  se- 


1498]  HIS   THIRD  EXPEDITION.  2O/ 

cured  the  gratitude  and  admiration  of  the 
pious  Queen.  To  have  almost  discovered 
the  Garden  of  Eden  in  a  nearly  perfect 
state  of  repair  was  certainly  more  satisfac- 
tory than  the  discovery  of  any  amount  of 
gold  would  have  been.  Still,  he  thought 
it  could  do  no  harm  to  mention  in  his  let- 
ter to  the  Queen  that  pearls  of  enormous 
value  abounded  on  the  coast,  and  that  the 
land  was  fertile,  full  of  excellent  trees  and 
desirable  fruits,  and  populous  with  parrots 
of  most  correct  conversational  habits,  and 
monkeys  of  unusual  moral  worth  and  comic 
genius. 

Although  Columbus  failed  to  visit  the 
Garden  of  Eden,  either  because  he  had  no 
pass  from  the  Pope  or  because  he  could 
not  spare  the  time,  it  must  not  be  imagin- 
ed that  he  did  not  believe  his  new  and  sur- 
prising theory.  In  those  happy  days  men 
had  a  capacity  for  belief  which  they  have 
since  totally  lost,  and  Columbus  himself 
was  probably  capable  of  honestly  believing 
even  wilder  theories  than  the  one  which 
gave  to  the  earth  the  shape  of  a  pear  and 


208  CHRISTOPHER    COLUMBUS.          [^Et.  62 

perched  the  Garden  on  the  top  of  an  ima- 
ginary South  American  mountain. 

As  the  provisions  were  getting  low,  and 
the  Admiral's  fever  was  getting  high — not 
to  speak  of  his  gout,  which  manifested  a  ten- 
dency to  rise  to  his  stomach — he  resolved 
to  cease  exploring  for  a  time,  and  to  sail 
for  Hispaniola.  He  arrived  there  on  the 
i  Qth  of  August,  after  discovering  and  nam- 
ing a  quantity  of  new  islands.  The  cur- 
rents had  drifted  him  so  far  out  of  his 
course,  that  he  reached  the  coast  of  His- 
paniola a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  west  of 
Ozima,  his  port  of  destination.  Sending 
an  Indian  messenger  to  warn  Bartholomew 
of  his  approach,  he  sailed  for  Ozima,  where 
he  arrived  on  the  3Oth  of  August,  looking 
as  worn  out  and  haggard  as  if  he  had  been 
engaged  in  a  prolonged  pleasure-trip  to  the 
Fishing  Banks. 

Don  Bartholomew  received  his  brother 
with  the  utmost  joy,  and  proceeded  to 
make  him  happy  by  telling  him  how  badly 
affairs  had  gone  during  his  absence.  Bar- 
tholomew had  followed  the  Admiral's 


1498]  HIS   THIRD  EXPEDITION.  209 

orders,  and  had  proved  himself  a  gallant 
and  able  commander.  He  had  built  a  fort 
and  founded  a  city  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Ozima,  which  is  now  known  as  San  Do- 
mingo. Leaving  Don  Diego  Columbus 
in  command  of  the  colony,  he  had  marched 
to  Xaragua,  the  western  part  of  the  island, 
and  induced  the  Cacique  Behechio  and  his 
sister  Anacaona,  the  widow  of  Caonabo,  to 
acknowledge  the  Spanish  rule  and  to  pay 
tribute.  He  had  also  crushed  a  conspiracy 
of  the  natives,  which  was  due  chiefly  to  the 
burning  of  several  Indians  at  the  stake  who 
had  committed  sacrilege  by  destroying  a 
chapel.  These  were  the  first  Indians  who 
were  burnt  for  religious  purposes,  and  it  is 
a  pity  that  Father  Boyle  had  not  remained 
in  Hispaniola  long  enough  to  witness  the 
ceremony  which  he  had  so  often  vainly 
urged  the  Admiral  to  permit  him  to  per- 
form. Probably  Don  Bartholomew  was 
not  responsible  for  the  burning  of  the 
savages,  for  he  evidently  sympathized 
with  the  revolted  natives,  and  suppressed 
the  conspiracy  with  hardly  any  bloodshed. 


210  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [jEt.  62 

The  colonists,  both  old  and  new,  were 
of  course  always  discontented,  and  cordi- 
ally disliked  the  two  brothers  of  the  Ad- 
miral. The  chief  judge  of  the  colony, 
Francisco  Roldan,  undertook  to  over- 
throw the  authority  of  the  Adelentado,  and 
to  make  himself  the  ruler  of  the  island. 
After  much  preliminary  rioting  and  strong 
language  Roldan  openly  rebelled,  and  with 
his  followers  besieged  Don  Bartholomew 
in  Fort  Concepcion,  in  which  he  had  taken 
refuge,  and  from  which  he  did  not  dare  to 
sally,  not  feeling  any  confidence  in  his  men. 
Roldan  was  unable  to  capture  the  fort, 
but  he  instigated  the  natives  to  throw  off 
Bartholomew's  authority,  and  convinced 
them  that  he,  and  not  the  Adelentado, 
was  their  real  friend. 

The  opportune  arrival  of  the  two  supply 
ships,  which  sailed  from  Spain  while  Co- 
lumbus was  fitting  out  his  third  expedition, 
probably  saved  the  authority  and  the  life 
of  Don  Bartholomew.  He  immediately 
left  the  fort  and,  going  to  San  Domingo, 
took  command  of  the  newly  arrived  troops, 


1498-1500]     HIS    THIRD  EXPEDITION.  211 

and  proclaimed  Roldan  a  traitor,  which 
greatly  relieved  his  mind.  The  traitor 
thereupon  marched  with  his  men  to  Xara- 
gua,  where  they  led  a  simple  and  happy 
life  of  vice  and  immorality.  The  discord 
among  the  Spaniards  induced  the  natives 
to  make  another  attempt  to  gain  their 
liberty,  but  the  Adelentado,  in  a  brilliant 
campaign,  once  more  reduced  them  to 
subjection.  Two  native  insurrections,  a 
Spanish  rebellion,  and  unusual  discontent 
were  thus  the  chief  features  of  the  pleasant 
story  with  which  Columbus  was  welcomed 
to  Hispaniola. 

Before  he  could  take  any  active  measures 
against  Roldan,  except  to  issue  a  proclama- 
tion expressly  confirming  Don  Bartholo- 
mew's assertion  that  he  was  a  traitor,  the 
three  ships  which  he  had  sent  direct  to 
Hispaniola  when  he  divided  his  fleet  at 
the  Cape  Verde  Islands,  arrived  off  the 
coast  of  Xaragua,  and  perceiving  Spaniards 
on  the  shore,  imagined  that  they  were 
respectable  colonists.  Roldan  fostered 
that  delusion  until  he  had  obtained  arms 


212  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS,     [^t.  62-64 

and  supplies,  when  he  admitted  that  from 
the  holiest  motives  he  had  rebelled  against 
the  tyranny  of  the  Adelentado. 

The  men  of  the  fleet,  learning  that  Rol- 
dan's  followers  were  a  set  of  reckless 
scoundrels,  were  inclined  to  think  that 
perhaps  transportation  was  not  such  a 
terrible  affair  after  all,  and  began  to  de- 
sert with  great  alacrity,  and  to  join  the 
rebels.  The  ships  therefore  put  to  sea, 
and  their  commander,  on  arriving  at  San 
Domingo,  informed  Columbus  that  Rol- 
dan  would  probably  surrender  if  it  was 
made  an  object  to  him  to  do  so. 

The  Admiral  was  anxious  to  march  on 
Xaragua,  capture  Roldan,  and  make  an 
example  of  him  ;  but  his  unpopularity  and 
that  of  his  brothers  was  so  great  that  he 
did  not  dare  to  risk  leaving  San  Domingo, 
lest  it  should  rebel  as  soon  as  his  back  was 
turned.  In  order  to  rid  himself  of  some 
of  the  malcontents,  he  fitted  out  five  ves- 
sels, and  offered  a  free  passage  to  Spain 
to  every  one  who  wished  to  return.  The 
ships  sailed,  carrying  letters  from  both 


1498-1500]    HIS   THIRD  EXPEDITION.  213 

Columbus  and  Roldan,  in  which  each 
described  the  other  in  uncomplimentary 
terms. 

Columbus  would  now  have  marched 
against  Roldan,  but  he  could  not  find 
more  than  seventy  men  who  felt  well 
enough  to  march  with  him.  The  rest  said 
they  had  headaches,  or  had  sprained  their 
ankles,  and  really  must  be  excused.  There 
was  nothing  left  to  do  but  to  negotiate 
with  the  rebel  leader,  and  compromise 
matters.  Columbus  began  by  offering  a 
free  pardon  to  Roldan  if  he  would  imme- 
diately surrender.  Roldan,  in  his  turn, 
offered  to  pardon  Columbus  if  he  would 
agree  to  certain  conditions.  These  nego- 
tiations were  continued  for  a  long  time, 
and  after  various  failures  the  Admiral  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  a  compromise.  He 
agreed  to  reappoint  Roldan  Chief  Judge 
of  the  colony ;  to  grant  him  a  certificate 
that  all  the  charges  which  had  been  made 
against  him  were  malicious  lies ;  to  give 
him  and  his  followers  back  pay,  slaves, 
and  compensation  for  their  property  which 


214  CHRISTOPHER    COLUMBUS.  [Mt.  62-64 

had  been  destroyed  ;  to  send  back  to  Spain 
such  of  the  rebels  as  might  wish  to  return, 
and  to  give  the  remainder  large  grants  of 
land.  On  these  conditions  Roldan  agreed 
to  overlook  what  had  passed  and  to  rejoin 
the  colony.  This  successful  compromise 
served  years  afterwards  as  a  model  for 
Northern  Americans  when  dealing  with 
their  dissatisfied  brethren,  and  entitles  Co- 
lumbus to  the  honor  of  being  the  first 
great  Americjan  compromiser. 

Having  thus  settled  the  dispute,  the 
Admiral  wrote  to  Spain,  explaining  that 
the  conditions  to  which  he  had  agreed  had 
been  extorted  by  force  and  were  therefore 
not  binding,  and  that  on  Roldan's  massive 
cheek  deserved  to  be  branded  the  legend 
Fraud  first  triumphant  in  American 
History.  He  asked  that  a  commissioner 
should  be  sent  out  to  arrest  and  punish 
the  rebel  chief,  and  to  take  the  place  of 
Chief  Judge  now  fraudulently  held  by 
Roldan. 

There  is  of  course  no  doubt  that  Co- 
lumbus would  have  hung  Roldan  with 


1498-1500]    HIS   THIRD  EXPEDITION.  215 

great  pleasure  had  he  been  able  to  do  so. 
He  was  compelled  by  force  of  circum- 
stances to  yield  to  all  the  rebel's  demands, 
but  nevertheless  it  was  hardly  fair  for  him 
to  claim  that  his  acts  and  promises  were 
not  binding.  Still,  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  he  was  suffering  from  malarial 
fever,  and  it  is  notorious  that  even  the 
best  of  men  will  tell  lies  without  remorse 
if  they  live  in  a  malarious  region  and  have 
houses  for  sale  or  to  let. 

The  Admiral,  having  thus  restored  or- 
der, was  about  to  return  to  Spain  to  ex- 
plain more  fully  his  conduct  and  that  of 
Don  Bartholomew,  when  he  heard  that 
four  ships  commanded  by  Alonzo  de 
Ojeda  had  arrived  at  Xaragua.  He  im- 
mediately suspected  that  something  was 
wrong,  and  that  in  Ojeda  he  would  have 
a  new  and  utterly  unscrupulous  enemy  to 
deal  with.  Foreseeing  that  an  emergency 
was  about  to  occur  in  which  a  skilful 
scoundrel  might  be  of  great  assistance  to 
him,  he  gave  Roldan  the  command  of  two 
ships,  and  sent  him  to  ascertain  what 


2l6  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.    [>£t.  62-64 

Ojeda  intended  to  do.  The  wily  Roldan 
anchored  just  out  of  sight  of  Ojeda's  fleet, 
while  the  latter,  with  fifteen  men  only, 
was  on  shore.  Landing  with  a  strong 
force,  and  placing  himself  between  Ojeda 
and  his  ships,  he  waited  for  the  latter  to 
meet  him  and  explain  matters. 

Ojeda  soon  appeared,  and  was  delighted 
to  see  a  gentleman  of  whom  he  had  heard 
such  favorable  reports.  He  said  he  was 
on  his  way  to  San  Domingo,  and  had 
merely  landed  for  supplies.  He  had  been 
authorized  to  make  discoveries  by  Fon- 
seca,  the  Secretary  of  Indian  Affairs,  and 
his  expedition  had  been  fitted  out  with 
the  assistance  of  Amerigo  Vespucci  and 
other  enterprising  merchants.  He  had' 
been  cruising  in  the  Gulf  of  Paria,  and 
had  his  ships  loaded  with  slaves.  As  soon 
as  he  could  he  intended  to  visit  Columbus, 
who,  he  regretted  to  say,  was  probably 
the  most  unpopular  man  in  Spain,  and 
would  soon  be  removed  from  his  com- 
mand. Roldan  returned  to  San  Domingo 
with  this  information,  and  both  he  and  the 


1498-1500]     HIS  THIRD  EXPEDITION. 

Admiral  agreed  that  they  did  not  believe 
anything  that  Ojeda  had  said. 

Meanwhile  Ojeda,  having  met  with 
many  of  Roldan's  former  adherents,  who 
still  lingered  in  Xaragua,  was  informed  by 
them  that  Columbus  had  not  given  them 
their  back  pay.  Ojeda  said  that  such  in- 
justice made  his  blood  boil,  and  that  if 
they  would  join  him  he  would  march  to 
San  Domingo  and  put  an  end  to  the  base 
Italian  tyrant.  The  new  rebellion  was 
prevented  by  the  arrival  of  Roldan  with 
a  respectable  array  of  troops,  and  Ojeda 
promptly  went  on  board  his  flag-ship. 
Roldan  wrote  to  him  asking  for  an  inter- 
view, and  reminding  him  that  rebellion 
was  a  crime  which  every  good  man  ought 
to  abhor.  Ojeda,  replied  that  such  was 
precisely  his  opinion,  and  he  must  refuse 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  a  man  who 
had  lately  been  a  rebel. 

Soon  afterward  Ojeda  sailed  away  in 
a  northerly  direction,  keeping  near  the 
shore,  and  Roldan  marched  along  the 
coast  to  intercept  him  in  case  he  should 


2l8  CHRISTOPHER    COLUMBUS.    [>Et.  62-64 

land.  Arriving  at  a  place  called  by  the 
natives  Cahay,  Ojeda  sent  a  boat  ashore, 
which  was  captured  by  Roldan,  and  in 
order  to  regain  it  he  was  finally  forced  to 
consent  to  parley  with  his  antagonist. 
The  result  was  that  Ojeda  promised  to 
sail  immediately  for  Spain.  Having  made 
this  promise  he  naturally  landed  soon  after 
on  another  part  of  the  island,  but  being 
followed  by  Roldan  he  finally  abandoned 
Hispaniola  and  sailed  for  Cadiz  with  his 
cargo  of  slaves. 

The  Admiral  was  greatly  pleased  at  this 
signal  illustration  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
proverb  about  setting  a  rogue  to  catch  a 
rogue,  and  writing  Roldan  a  compliment- 
ary letter,  requested  him  to  remain  for  a 
little  while  in  Xaragua. 

While  Ojeda's  ships  were  at  Xaragua, 
Columbus  had  passed  sentence  of  banish- 
ment on  Hernando  de  Guevara,  a  disso- 
lute young  Spaniard,  and  sent  him  to 
embark  on  board  one  of  Ojeda's  vessels. 
He  arrived  at  Xaragua  after  the  ships  had 
left,  and  Roldan  ordered  him  to  go  into 


1498-1500]     HIS    THIRD  EXPEDITION.  2 19 

banishment  at  Cahay.  Guevara,  however, 
had  fallen  in  love  with  an  Indian  maid,  the 
daughter  of  Anacaona,  and  wanted  to  re- 
main in  Xaragua  and  marry  her.  Roldan 
would  not  listen  to  him,  and  the  unhappy 
youth  went  to  Cahay,  where  he  stayed 
three  days  and  then  returned.  There  was 
a  spirited  quarrel  between  him  and  Rol- 
dan, and  the  latter  finally  yielded  and 
allowed  Guevara  to  remain. 

The  grateful  young  man  immediately 
conspired  against  Roldan  and  the  Admiral. 
He  had  a  cousin,  De  Mexica,  a  former 
associate  of  Roldan's  in  rebellion,  who  im- 
mediately took  up  the  cause  of  the  exile. 
De  Mexica  soon  convinced  his  ex-rebel 
friends  that  the  spectacle  of  Roldan,  as 
an  upright,  law-abiding  man,  was  simply 
revolting,  and  that  he  and  Columbus 
ought  to  be  killed.  He  had  gathered  a 
small  force  together,  when  he  and  his 
chief  associates  were  suddenly  surprised 
by  the  Admiral,  arrested,  tried,  and  hanged 
before  they  had  time  to  realize  that  any- 
thing was  the  matter. 


22O  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.    |>Et.  62-64 

Don  Bartholomew  was  dispatched  to 
Xaragua  to  aid  Roldan,  and  the  two,  after 
arresting  Guevara,  stamped  out  the  new 
rebellion  with  remorseless  energy.  This 
time  there  was  no  compromise,  and  a  sus- 
picion began  to  prevail  that  rebellion  was 
not  so  safe  and  profitable  an  industry  as  it 
had  been  hitherto. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

HIS    RETURN    IN    DISGRACE. 

ON  the  23d  of  August,  1500,  two  ships 
arrived  at  San  Domingo,  commanded 
by  Don  Francisco  de  Bobadilla,  who  had 
been  sent  out  by  the  Spanish  monarchs  as 
a  commissioner  to  investigate  the  state  of 
the  colony.  The  enemies  of  Columbus 
had  at  last  succeeded  in  prejudicing  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabella  against  him.  Ojeda,  the 
returned  colonists,  Roldan's  rebels,  and 
the  letters  of  Roldan  himself,  all  agreed  in 
representing  the  Admiral  as  a  new  kind  of 
fiend,  with  Italian  improvements,  for  whom 
no  punishment  could  be  sufficiently  severe. 
Ferdinand  calculated  the  total  amount 
of  gold  which  Columbus  had  either  carried 
or  sent  to  Spain,  and,  finding  it  smaller 
than  he  had  expected,  could  .no  longer  con- 
ceal his  conviction  that  Columbus  was  a 
cruel,  tyrannical,  and  wicked  man.  Isabella 


CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [;Et.  64 

had  hitherto  believed  in  the  Admiral,  and 
had  steadily  stood  by  him  while  under  fire, 
but  in  face  of  the  evidence  which  had  lat- 
terly been  submitted  to  her,  and  in  view  of 
the  cargo  of  slaves  that  had  been  sent  from 
Hispaniola  to  Spain  in  spite  of  her  orders, 
she  was  compelled  to  admit  that  an  inves- 
tigation should  be  made,  and  sanctioned 
the  appointment  of  Bobadilla,  with  the 
understanding  that  he  would  let  no  guilty 
man  escape. 

The  average  historian  is  always  very  in- 
dignant with  the  monarchs  for  sending 
Bobadilla  to  San  Domingo,  and  regards 
that  act  as  a  wanton  persecution  of  a  great 
and  good  man.  But  the  cold  and  scepti- 
cal inquirer  will  ask  how  it  happened  that 
every  person  who  came  under  the  Admi- 
ral's authority,  with  the  exception  of  his 
two  brothers,  invariably  made  complaints 
against  him.  It  is  true  that  the  majority 
of  the  colonists  were  men  whose  word  was 
unworthy  of  credit,  but  had  Columbus 
been  a  just  and  able  ruler,  surely  some  one 
outside  of  his  own  family  would  have 


HIS  RETURN  IN  DISGRACE.  22$ 

spoken  favorably  of  him.  We  need  not 
suppose  that  he  was  responsible  for  the 
chills  and  fever  which  harassed  the  colo- 
nists, or  that  he  originated  all  the  hurri- 
canes and  earthquakes  that  visited  the 
island  ;  but  there  is  sufficient  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  he  was  not  well  fitted  to  win  the 
obedience  or  respect  of  the  colonists,  and 
in  the  circumstances  we  may  restrain  our 
indignation  at  the  appointment  of  the  in- 
vestigating commissioner. 

Ferdinand  and  Isabella  evidently  had 
cofidence  in  the  judgment  and  integrity  of 
Bobadilla,  for  they  gave  him  three  or  four 
different  commissions,  with  authority  to 
use  any  or  all  of  them,  as  he  might  see  fit. 
As  the  event  proved,  he  was  unworthy  of 
this  confidence  ;  but  it  would  not  be  fair  to 
accuse  the  monarchs  of  deliberate  cruelty 
because  they  overrated  their  commissioner's 
intelligence. 

Bobadilla  arrived  at  San  Domingo  just 
after  the  suppression  of  Mexica's  rebellion, 
and  while  Columbus  was  still  absent  at 
Fort  Concepcion.  As  he  entered  the  river 


224  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         |>Et.  64 

he  saw  two  gibbets  decorated  with  rebel 
corpses,  and  the  sight  was  not  adapted  to 
remove  the  impression,  which  he  undoubt- 
edly had,  that  Columbus  was  cruel  and 
tyrannical. 

His  first  act  was  to  publish  a  proclama- 
tion that  he  had  come  to  redress  griev- 
ances, and  that  every  one  in  San  Domingo 
who  had  any  cause  of  complaint  against 
Columbus  or  his  brothers  should  at  once 
speak  out,  or  ever  after  hold  his  peace. 
The  entire  population,  with  the  solitary 
exception  of  those  who  were  locked  up  in 
jail,  at  once  hastened  to  Bobadilla  and  told 
their  grievances. 

The  commissioner,  appalled  at  the  flood 
of  accusation  which  he  had  set  loose, 
strengthened  his  mind  by  attending  mass, 
and  then  caused  his  commission  appoint- 
ing him  to  inquire  into  the  late  rebellion 
to  be  read.  This  having  been  done,  he 
demanded  that  Don  Diego  Columbus,  who 
was  in  command  of  San  Domingo,  should 
surrender  to  him  Guevara  and  the  other 
rebel  prisoners.  Don  Diego  said  that  he 


1500]  HIS  RETURN  IN  DISGRACE.  22$ 

held  the  prisoners  subject  to  the  Admiral's 
order,  and  must  therefore  decline  to  sur- 
render them.  Bobadilla  next  produced  a 
second  commission  appointing  him  Gov- 
ernor of  the  New  World,  and  remarked 
that  perhaps  Don  Diego  would  now  con- 
descend to  give  up  the  prisoners.  Don 
Diego  conceded  that  the  commission  was 
a  very  pretty  one,  especially  in  point  of 
seals  and  ribands,  but  maintained  that  his 
brother  had  a  better  one,  and  that,  on  the 
whole,  he  must  decline  to  recognize  Boba- 
dilla as  Governor.  Exasperated  by  this 
obstinacy,  Bobadilla  now  produced  a  third 
commission,  ordering  the  Admiral  and  his 
brothers  to  surrender  all  the  forts,  public 
buildings,  and  public  property  to  him,  and 
forcibly  argued  that  since  Guevara  was  in  a 
fort,  the  surrender  of  the  fort  would  include 
the  surrender  of  Guevara,  in  accordance 
with  the  axiom  that  the  greater  includes  the 
less.  Don  Diego  calmly  insisted  that  this 
was  not  a  case  in  which  mathematics  were 
concerned,  and  that  he  proposed  to  obey 
the  Admiral's  orders,  no  matter  if  Bobadilla 


226  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         |>Et.  64 

should  keep  on  producing  new  commis- 
sions at  the  rate  of  sixty  a  minute  for  the 
rest  of  his  natural  life. 

Bobadilla,  finding  that  Don  Diego's  ob- 
stinacy was  proof  against  everything,  went 
to  the  fort  and  called  on  the  commander 
to  give  up  his  prisoners,  and  when  the 
commander  refused,  broke  into  the  fort,  at 
the  head  of  the  delighted  colonists,  and 
seized  on  Guevara  and  his  rebel  compan- 
ions. He  then  took  possession  of  all  the 
property  and  private  papers  belonging  to 
the  Admiral,  and,  moving  into  his  house, 
proceeded  to  assume  the  duties  of  Gover- 
nor and  investigator. 

Columbus,  when  he  heard  of  these  pro- 
ceedings, was  somewhat  astonished,  and 
remarked  to  his  friends  that  he  feared  this 
Bobadilla  was  a  little  rash  and  impolitic. 
He  wrote  to  him,  welcoming  him  to  the 
island,  and  suggesting  that  it  would  be  well 
if  he  were  to  draw  it  mild — or  words  to 
that  effect.  In  reply,  Bobadilla  sent  him 
an  order  to  appear  before  him  at  once,  and 
enclosed  a  letter  from  the  sovereigns,  or- 


HIS  RETURN  IN  DISGRACE. 

dering  Columbus  to  obey  the  combined 
Governor  and  Commissioner  in  all  things. 
Being  wholly  without  means  of  resistance, 
Columbus  perceived  that  magnanimity  was 
what  posterity  would  expect  of  him,  and 
therefore  immediately  went  to  San  Do- 
mingo and  presented  himself  before  Boba- 
dilla. 

That  amiable  and  delicate  person  re- 
ceived the  Admiral  as  if  he  were  an  Italian 
brigand  for  whom  a  reward  of  $25,000  had 
been  offered,  and  ordered  him  and  his 
brother,  Don  Diego,  to  be  put  in  irons, 
As  a  striking  instance  of  the  irony  of  fate, 
it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  man  who 
placed  the  irons  on  Columbus  was  his 
former  cook,  whose  self-respect  had  often 
been  wounded  when  his  master  complained 
that  the  maccaroni  was  burned  or  that  the 
roast  pork  was  insufficiently  cooked.  Now 
the  cook  had  his  revenge,  and  we  can 
imagine  with  what  zest  he  remarked,  after 
the  fetters  were  riveted,  that  he  hoped 
that  for  once  the  Admiral  would  admit  that 
the  job  was  well  done,  and  would  notice 


228  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.       .  [^Et.  64 

the  rare  pleasure  with  which  his  ex-cook 
had  performed  it,  whatever  might  have 
been  that  humble  but  honest  individual's 
previous  sins  in  respect  to  pork  and  mac- 
caroni.  Undoubtedly  he  said  something 
of  the  kind,  for  a  man  who  could  put 
chains  on  Columbus  was  surely  bad 
enough  to  make  puns  without  shame  01 
remorse.  At  the  command  of  Bobadilla, 
Columbus  wrote  to  Don  Bartholomew, 
who  was  in  Xaragua,  inviting  him  to  come 
and  share  the  fetters  of  his  illustrious 
brother  and  the  well-meaning  Don  Diego 
—which  the  Adelentado  accordingly  did. 

Having  the  entire  Columbus  family  thus 
safely  in  his  power,  Bobadilla  pro.cceded 
to  take  testimony  against  them,  with  all 
the  enthusiasm  of  a  partisan  Senate  com- 
mittee preparing  material  for  a  Presiden- 
tial campaign.  There  was  no  lack  of  tes- 
timony. The  colonists  made  affidavits 
with  a  wealth  of  imagination  and  fervency 
of  zeal  which  a  professional  detective  em- 
ployed to  furnish  evidence  in  an  Indiana 
divorce  case  might  emulate  but  could  not 


1 5oo]  HIS  RETURN  IN  DISGRACE.  22g 

V 

surpass.  Columbus  was  accused  of  nearly 
all  modern  and  ancient  crimes,  from  steal- 
ing pearls  and  gold-dust  up  to  the  crown- 
ing infamy  of  requiring  Spanish  gentlemen 
to  work.  It  was  conclusively  shown  that 
he  was  the  worst  man  then  living,  with  the 
possible  exception  of  the  Adelentado,  and 
that  Guevara  and  the  other  rebels  were 
patent,  direct-acting  saints,  who  deserved 
every  possible  honor.  Having  made  up 
an  effective  campaign  document  from  this 
mass  of  brilliant  testimony,  Bobadilla  sent 
it,  together  with  Columbus  and  his  two 
brothers,  to  Spain. 

Don  Alonzo  de  Villejo,  who  com- 
manded the  vessel  on  board  of  which  was 
the  fallen  Admiral,  was  a  gallant  sailor, 
and,  as  soon  as  the  ship  was  safely  out  of 
the  harbor,  said,  in  the  strongest  seafar- 
ing language,  that  he  would  consent  to 
the  immediate  condemnation  of  his  per- 
sonal eyes  if  the  Admiral  should  wear 
those  doubly  condemned  chains  another 
moment.  But  Columbus  courteously  and 
firmly  refused  to  be  liberated.  He  said 


230  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         \&\..  64 

the  chains  had  been  put  on  him  by  order 
of  the  King  and  Queen,  and  that  the  King 
and  Queen  would  have  to  take  them  off, 
or  he  would  wear,  them  to  his  dying  day, 
and  serve  them  right.  This  was  a  stout- 
hearted resolution,  but,  perhaps  just  to 
gratify  Villejo,  Columbus  consented  now 
and  then  to  slip  one  wrist  out  of  his  fetters, 
which  he  must  have  found  very  inconve- 
nient when  he  was  engaged  in  writing 
letters. 

The  voyage  was  uneventful,  and  in  the 
early  part  of  October  the  ship  reached 
Cadiz  and  Columbus  was  delivered  to  the 
local  authorities.  The  moment  it  was 
known  that  he  had  been  brought  home  in 
irons  he  became  immensely  popular,  as 
indeed  the  man  who  made  so  unexpected 
and  brilliant  a  sensation  deserved  to  be. 
Everybody  said  it  was  an  outrage,  and  that 
Bobabilla  was  clearly  the  beast  spoken  of 
in  the  Apocalypse. 

Columbus  did  not  venture  to  write  to 
the  Queen,  but  he  wrote  a  long  and  elo- 
quent account  of  his  bad  treatment  to  one 


HIS  RETURN  IN  DISGRACE.  23! 

of  the  ladies  of  the  court,  who  he  knew 
would  instantly  read  it  to  Isabella.  That 
estimable  sovereign  was  greatly  shocked, 
and  Ferdinand  felt  that,  as  a  prudent  hus- 
band, he  must  share  his  wife's  indignation. 
The  royal  pair  immediately  wrote  a  letter 
expressing  the  warmest  sympathy  for  Co- 
lumbus, inviting  him  to  court,  and  en- 
closing a  check  for  nearly  $8500  to  pay 
his  travelling  expenses  and  enable  him  to 
buy  a  few  clean  collars  and  other  neces- 
saries. 

The  Admiral,  taking  off  his  chains  and 
putting  them  in  his  trunk  as  souvenirs  of 
royal  favor,  went  to  Granada,  where  the 
court  was  then  held,  and  being  admitted 
to  the  royal  presence  fell  at  the  feet  of 
Isabella,  which  he  appears  to  have  care- 
fully distinguished  from  Ferdinand's  feet, 
and  burst  into  tears.  The  monarchs  per- 
sonally raised  him  up,  in  spite  of  his 
weight,  and  Isabella  told  him  it  was  a  per- 
fect shame,  and  that  Bobadilla's  conduct 
was  quite  too  awfully  horrid.  Ferdinand 
behaved  very  properly,  and  agreed  with 


232  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          |>Et.  64 

Isabella  that  all  the  rights  and  honors  of 
Columbus  should  be  restored  to  him,  and 
that  he  could  feel  perfectly  easy  as  to  the 
future.  Bobadilla's  elaborate  campaign 
document  was  tossed  aside  with  as  little 
attention  as  if  it  had  been  a  Patent  Office 
Report,  and  his  attempt  to  fire  the  royal 
Spanish  heart  was  a  complete  failure. 

Columbus  now  expected  that  he  would 
be  directed  to  return  immediately  to  San 
Domingo,  and  to  send  Bobadilla  home  in 
disgrace ;  but  the  monarchs  delayed  to 
issue  the  desired  orders.  Ferdinand  had 
evidently  made  up  his  mind  to  do  nothing 
of  the  sort.  He  considered  himself  a  deeply 
injured  king.  In  the  confident  expecta- 
tion that  Columbus  would  be  drowned,  he 
had  consented  to  grant  him  unprecedented 
honors  and  privileges,  in  the  improbable 
contingency  of  the  discovery  of  a  new 
road  to  Asia  or  a  new  continent.  Co- 
lumbus had  meanly  taken  advantage  of 
this  to  discover  a  continent  and  innumer- 
able islands,  and  had,  as  Ferdinand  felt, 
cheated  him  out  of  a  splendid  title  and  a 


1500-2]        HIS  RETURN  IN  DISGRACE.  233 

handsome  revenue.  Now  that  Columbus 
had  temporarily  lost  these  ill-gotten  ad- 
vantages, Ferdinand  did  not  think  it  neces- 
sary to  restore  them.  He  therefore  in- 
formed the  Admiral  that  it  would  be  best 
for  him  to  remain  in  Spain  for,  say,  ten 
years,  until  things  could  be  made  pleasant 
for  him  in  Hispaniola.  In  the  mean  time 
Don  Nicholas  de  Ovando  would  be  sent 
out  to  supersede  Bobadilla  nd  to  ascer- 
tain what  damages  Columbus  and  his 
brothers  had  sustained,  so  that  full  pay- 
ment could  be  made.  He  assured  the 
Admiral  that  everything  should  be  ar- 
ranged to  his  satisfaction,  and  that  he 
should  lose  nothing  by  remaining  in  Spain. 
There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  Co- 
lumbus was  deceived  by  the  King's  attenu- 
ated explanation,  but  he  could  not  well 
find  fault  with  it.  De  Ovando  sailed  for 
San  Domingo  with  a  fleet  of  thirty  vessels 
and  twenty-five  hundred  men.  Columbus 
took  lodgings  in  Granada,  and  to  employ 
his  time  resolved  to  attend  to  the  little 
matter  of  recovering  the  Holy  Sepulchre, 


234  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS,    [JEt.  64-66 

a  duty  which  he  had  long  neglected  and 
had  recently  bequeathed  to  his  son.  He 
drew  up  a  long  memorial,  urging  the  King 
and  Queen  to  organize  a  new  crusade  for 
the  capture  of  Jerusalem.  He  demonstra- 
ted to  his  own  satisfaction  that  he  had 
been  born  in  order  to  discover  a  new 
world  and  to  redeem  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 
He  had  fulfilled  the  first  of  these  duties, 
and  was  now  ready  for  the  second.  All 
that  he  required  was  an  army  and  a  suffi- 
cient supply  of  money. 

Ferdinand  did  not  embrace  the  sugges- 
tion with  much  enthusiasm.  He  said  he 
would  see  about  it,  and  hinted  that  as 
crusading  was  an  expensive  business,  it 
might  be  well  to  ascertain  whether  the 
Sultan  would  be  willing  to  look  at  the 
matter  from  a  business  point  of  view  and 
make  some  arrangement  in  regard  to  the 
Holy  Sepulchre  which  would  settle  the 
matter  in  an  amicable  and  inexpensive 
.way. 

The  crusading  scheme  being  a  failure, 
the  Admiral  devised  a  new  plan  of  explo- 


1500-2]        HIS  RETURN  IN  DISGRACE.  2$$ 

ration.  He  wrote  another  memorial,  set- 
ting forth  the  advantages  of  discovering 
the  Panama  Canal.  He  admitted  that 
either  China  had  been  moved,  or  else  it 
lay  farther  west  of  Spain  than  he  had  at 
first  supposed.  At  any  rate,  it  had  become 
clear  to  his  mind  that  there  was  a  conti- 
nent which  blocked  up  the  direct  route  to 
China,  and  that  the  only  way  to  get 
through  this  obstacle  was  to  discover  a 
canal  ^  niveau,  cutting  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama.  He  had  not  the  least  doubt 
that  the  canal  was  there,  and  that  he  could 
find  it  with  perfect  ease  were  he  to  be 
supplied  with  ships  and  men,  and  were  a 
proper  reward  to  be  offered  for  its  dis- 
covery. Now  that  he  had  time  for  re- 
flection, he  was  inclined  to  think  the 
market  had  latterly  been  overstocked  with 
new  countries — a  result  which  he  had  feared 
when  the  sovereigns  so  injudiciously — if 
he  might  be  allowed  the  expression — gave 
to  everybody  the  privilege  of  exploration. 
In  regard  to  the  Panama  Canal,  however, 
he  was  confident  that  it  would  meet  a 


236  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.    |>Et.  64-66 

great  public  want,  and  that  its  discovery 
would  be  warmly  applauded  by  everybody, 
with  the  possible  exception  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Bohemia,  who,  although  they  had 
no  commerce,  might  insist  that  the  canal 
should  not  be  discovered  unless  the  dis- 
coverer would  agree  to  present  it  to  them. 
The  plan  pleased  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella. A  fleet  of  four  ships  was  or- 
dered to  be  made  ready,  and  Columbus 
was  authorized  to  take  with  him  his 
brother  Don  Bartholomew  and  his  per- 
sonal son,  Diego.  The  monarchs  also 
wrote  Columbus  a  letter,  in  which  they 
said  many  pleasant  and  inexpensive  things, 
and  promised  him  the  restoration  of  all  his 
rights.  He  was  now  so  enfeebled  by  age 
and  hardship  that  it  seemed  safe  to  promise 
him  anything,  provided  the  promises  were 
not  to  be  fulfilled  until  after  his  return 
from  his  intended  voyage. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

HIS    FOURTH    EXPEDITION. 

ON  the  Qth  of  May,  1502,  Columbus 
once  more  sailed  from  Cadiz.  The 
passage  across  the  Atlantic  was  in  no  way 
remarkable.  The  fleet  touched  as  usual 
at  the  Canaries,  and  on  the  i5th  of  June 
arrived  at  one  of  the  smaller  Caribbean 
islands.  Columbus  had  been  strictly  for- 
bidden to  touch  at  San  Domingo,  be- 
cause it  was  feared  that  he  would  get  into 
trouble  with  the  local  authorities,  and 
would  then  come  back  to  Spain  to  defend 
himself  against  false  accusations.  How- 
ever, as  one  of  his  ships  was  unseaworthy, 
he  convinced  himself  that  it  was  a  matter 
of  necessity  and  mercy  for  him  to  go  to 
San  Domingo  and  obtain  a  better  vessel. 

He  arrived  in  due  time  at  the  forbidden 
port,  but  Ovando  refused  to  permit  him 
to  land,  and  ordered  him  to  put  to  sea 


238  CHRIS  TOP  HER   COL  UMB  US.         |>Et.  66 

immediately.  Columbus  then  informed 
Ovando  that  a  hurricane  was  approach- 
ing, and  begged  permission  to  lie  at 
anchor  in  the  shelter  of  the  harbor  until 
fair  weather  should  appear ;  but  his  peti- 
tion was  refused.  Ovando  said  there  was 
not  the  least  sign  of  an  approaching  hur- 
ricane, and  that  he  was  a  bird  far  too 
advanced  in  years  to  be  caught  by  the 
Admiral's  meteorological  chaff. 

There  was  at  the  time  a  large  fleet  of 
vessels  lying  in  the  harbor,  and  on  the 
point  of  sailing  for  Spain.  On  board  of 
the  fleet  were  Roldan,  Bobadilla,  many 
discontented  colonists,  and  a  large  quan- 
tity of  gold.  Now  Columbus,  who  was 
learned  in  weather,  was  in  earnest  when 
he  prophesied  a  hurricane,  and  he  felt  sad 
in  view  of  the  danger  which  threatened 
the  gold  on  board  the  fleet  in  case  the 
ships  should  put  to  sea  before  the  hurri- 
cane arrived.  He  warned  Ovando  not 
to  let  the  fleet  depart,  but  Ovando  and 
everybody  else  laughed  to  scorn  "  Old 
Italian  Probabilities,"  and  mocked  at  his 


1502]  HIS  FOURTH  EXPEDITION.  239 

areas  of  barometrical  depression  and  ap- 
proaching storm-centres. 

Columbus  sailed  away  and  sought  shel- 
ter under  the  lee  of  the  island,  and  the  fleet 
with  Bobadilla  and  the  gold  put  to  sea. 
Two  days  later  a  hurricane  that  the  New 
York  Herald  would  have  been  proud  tc 
launch  against  the  shores  of  Great  Britain 
wrecked  the  fleet,  drowned  Bobadilla  and 
Roldan,  and  sunk  the  gold  to  the  bottom 
of  the  sea.  A  few  vessels  managed  to 
work  their  way  back  to  San  Domingo, 
but  only  one  reached  Spain.  The  fortu- 
nate vessel  had  on  board  a  quantity  of 
gold  belonging  to  Columbus,  and  in  his 
opinion  this  fact  was  all  that  saved  her. 

The  Admiral's  vessels  rode  out  the 
storm  safely,  though  they  were  much 
damaged,  and,  after  it  was  over,  put  into 
Port  Hermoso  to  refit.  Having  patched 
up  the  vessels,  Columbus  set  sail  for  the 
Panama  Canal,  and  after  a  voyage  of 
about  six  weeks  he  reached  a  group  of 
small  islands  on  the  coast  of  Honduras. 
Here  he  met  a  large  canoe  filled  with  the 


240  CHRISTOPHER    COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  66 

ablest  natives  he  had  yet  seen.  They  had 
hatchets  and  other  tools  made  of  copper, 
and  were  dressed  in  cotton  garments 
woven  by  themselves.  They  were  proba- 
bly from  Yucatan,  for  they  claimed  to 
belong  to  a  civilized  country  situated 
farther  west  and  possessing  magnificent 
cities.  The  Admiral  said  he  was  not 
looking  for  cities  as  much  as  he  had  been, 
that  he  was  on  his  way  to  India,  and  that 
he  had  no  time  to  go  to  Yucatan.  Thus 
he  lost  the  chance  of  discovering  the  curi- 
ous and  fantastic  Maya  and  Aztec  civili- 
zation which  Cortez  afterward  found  and 
destroyed. 

There  was  little  in  the  early  part  of 
the  Admiral's  voyage  along  the  Central 
American  coast  which  deserves  especial 
notice.  He  coasted  Honduras  and  Costa 
Rica,  finding  an  oppressive  sameness  of 
savages  and  bad  weather.  The  savages 
were  peaceful,  but  the  weather  was  not. 
It  rarely  condescended  to  indulge  in  any- 
thing less  violent  than  a  hurricane,  and 
always  blew  from  precisely  the  direction 


1502]  HIS  FOURTH  EXPEDITION.  241 

in  which  the  Spaniards  wished  to  steer. 
The  Costa  Rican  savages  told  Columbus 
that  the  Ganges  was  a  few  days'  journey 
farther  west,  and  that  vessels  carrying  can- 
nons frequently  came  to  the  large  city  of 
Ciguari,  which  was  still  nearer  than  the 
Ganges. 

This  was,  on  the  whole,  the  most  able 
and  satisfactory  aboriginal  lie  which  had 
yet  been  told  to  Columbus,  and  it  made 
him  confident  that  he  would  arrive  in  India 
in  a  few  days.  Lest  the  savages  should 
receive  too  much  credit  for  inventive  gen- 
ius, it  should  be  mentioned  that  they  must 
have  been  greatly  assisted  by  leading  ques- 
tions put  by  the  Spaniards,  otherwise  they 
could  not  have  hit  upon  the  name  of  the 
Ganges.  The  mention  of  the  ships  armed 
with  cannon  which  came  to  the  mythical 
city  of  Ciguari  was,  however,  a  master- 
stroke for  which  the  natives  are  entitled  to 
full  credit.  Travellers  who  have  visited 
Central  America  in  our  day  would  per- 
haps find  it  easier  to  understand  the  habits 
and  customs  of  the  people,  were  it  gener- 


242  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [JEt.  66 

ally  known  that  their  remote  Indian  an- 
cestors were  likewise  men  of  brilliant 
imagination  and  utter  fearlessness  of  as- 
sertion. 

Leaving  these  mendacious  but  encour- 
aging savages,  Columbus  came  to  Veragua, 
a  country  lying  farther  south  and  really 
abounding  in  gold.  But  now  that  he  had 
finally  reached  a  place  where  gold  was 
abundant,  the  precious  metal  for  which 
Columbus  had  searched  so  long  and  ea- 
gerly seemed  to  have  lost  its  charm.  He 
was  too  anxious  to  reach  the  Ganges  to 
be  willing  to  stop  for  anything ;  so,  after 
laying  in  a  few  gold  plates,  he  stood  on 
his  southward  course. 

The  ships  and  the  Admiral  were  by  this 
time  greatly  in  want  of  repairs.  Colum- 
bus was  suffering  from  gout,  fever,  and  old 
age,  while  the  ships,  in  addition  to  the  lat- 
ter complaint,  were  leaky  and  covered 
with  barnacles.  The  crews  began  to  grum- 
ble loudly,  and  on  the  5th  of  December, 
Columbus  having  failed  to  find  the  Gan- 
ges, the  city  of  Ciguari,  or  the  Panama 


1503]  HIS  FOURTH  EXPEDITION.  243 

Ship-Canal,  thought  it  best  to  yield  to  the 
force  of  public  opinion  before  it  should 
express  itself  with  handspikes  and  knives. 
He  therefore  consented  to  abandon  his 
search  and  turn  back  to  Veragua,  where  he 
hoped  to  be  able  to  collect  enough  gold  to 
convince  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  of  his 
wisdom  in  postponing  his  intended  geo- 
graphical discoveries. 

No  sooner  had  the  ships  turned  and 
stood  to  the  northward,  than  the  wind,  with 
a  vicious  display  of  ill-temper,  shifted  and 
became  once  more  a  head-wind.  It  blew 
if  anything  harder  from  its  new  quarter 
than  it  had  blown  before,  and  it  was  not 
until  early  in  January  that  the  fleet  reached 
Veragua  and  anchored  in  the  river  Belen. 

The  sailors  were  glad  to  go  ashore  ;  for, 
though  there  was  nothing  to  drink,  there 
was  gold  to  be  got,  and  while  on  shore 
they  were  rid  of  the  task  of  sailing  clumsy 
and  leaking  ships.  The  Admiral,  in  his 
feeble  health,  was  greatly  in  need  of  rest, 
and  he  was  not  aware  that  he  had  found 
precisely  the  worst  locality  in  the  Western 


244  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [^t.  67 

Hemisphere  for  fever  and  mosquitoes. 
The  Adelentado  was  sent  with  a  large 
force  to  explore  the  surrounding  country, 
from  which  he  returned  with  the  report 
that  the  natives  had  a  great  deal  of  gold 
in  their  possession.  Of  course  the  Span- 
ish soldiers  merely  looked  at  this  gold,  and 
complimented  the  natives  on  their  posses- 
sion of  so  valuable  an  article ;  we  need  not 
suppose  they  were  so  wicked  as  to  steal 
it,  and  thus  convert  the  friendly  Costa  Ri- 
cans  into  enemies. 

Being  satisfied  with  the  Adelentado's  re- 
port, Columbus  decided  to  leave  most  of 
his  men  to  found  a  colony  on  the  banks  of 
the  Belen,  while  he  should  return  to  Spain 
for  supplies. 

The  natives  had  hitherto  been  peaceable  ; 
but  when  they  saw  the  Spaniards  building 
houses  on  their  land,  they  felt  that  it  was 
time  to  take  proceedings  for  dispossession. 
Columbus  received  information  that  the 
local  cacique,  Quibian,  was  collecting  an 
army  to  attack  the  colony,  and  he  sent 
Diego  Mendez  to  investigate  the  matter. 


HIS  FOURTH  EXPEDITION.  245 

Quibian's  village  was  on  the  river  Vera- 
gua,  not  far  from  the  Belen,  and  Mendez 
soon  found  his  way  thither.  He  was  told 
that  the  cacique  was  confined  to  his  house 
with  a  wounded  leg.  Mendez  immediately 
said  that  he  was  a  doctor,  and  would  re- 
pair the  leg ;  but  Quibian's  son  said,  Oh 
no,  he  rather  thought  Mendez  would  not 
repair  that  particular  leg  just  then.  As 
the  savage  followed  up  this  remark  by 
hitting  Mendez  over  the  head,  the  latter 
admitted  that  perhaps  he  was  mistaken, 
and  hurriedly  remembered  that  he  had  an 
engagement  which  would  require  his  im- 
mediate return  to  the  colony. 

There  was  now  no  doubt  that  Quibian 
intended  to  fight,  and  the  Adelentado, 
remarking  that  a  cacique  in  the  hand  was 
better  than  several  in  the  bush,  proposed  to 
go  in  person  and  capture  Quibian.  Taking 
seventy-four  men  with  him,  Don  Bartholo- 
mew managed  to  obtain  an  interview  with 
the  cacique,  whom  he  instantly  seized  and 
bound.  The  natives  offered  no  resistance, 
and  the  Adelentado,  gathering  up  the  wives 


246  CHRISTOPHER    COLUMBUS.          [JEt.  67 

and  children  of  Quibian,  prepared  to  re- 
turn. 

The  cacique  was  laid  in  the  bottom  of  a 
boat,  and  pretended  to  suffer  so  much  pain 
that  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  boat 
loosened  his  bonds.  Quibian  thereupon 
jumped  overboard  and,  as  it  was  now  night, 
escaped  safely  to  land ;  while  the  Span- 
iards believed  that  he  had  been  drowned. 

The  danger  of  an  attack  by  the  savages 
being  thus,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Admiral, 
at  an  end,  he  prepared  to  depart  for  Spain. 
The  water  on  the  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  was  so  low  that  the  ships  could  not 
pass  over  it  without  being  lightened. 
Their  stores  were  therefore  disembarked, 
and  after  getting  into  deep  water  the  ships 
were  anchored  and  the  stores  were  brought 
back  to  them  in  boats. 

When  the  fleet  was  nearly  ready  to  sail, 
Columbus  sent  Diego  Tristan  and  eleven 
men  ashore  to  obtain  water.  As  they 
neared  the  settlement,  they  saw  a  horde  of 
savages  rush  out  of  the  jungle  and  attack 
the  colonists.  The  savages  were  led  by 


1503]  HIS  FOURTH  EXPEDITION. 

Quibian,  who,  being  a  heathen  and  a  bar- 
barian, imagined  that  he  had  more  right  to 
his  wives  and  children  than  the  Spaniards 
had.  Tristan  was  an  excellent  old  sailor, 
who  held  that  it  was  the  first  duty  of  man 
to  obey  orders.  He  had  been  sent  for 
water  and  not  for  blood,  and  accordingly 
he  never  thought  of  interfering  in  the 
fight,  but  rowed  steadily  up  the  river  in 
search  of  fresh  water.  The  Spaniards 
fought  bravely,  and  repulsed  the  attack  of 
the  natives  ;  but  the  latter,  instead  of  appre- 
ciating Tristan's  fidelity  to  duty,  fell  upon 
him  and  killed  him  and  his  whole  party, 
with  the  exception  of  one  man,  who  fled 
to  the  settlement  with  his  sanguinary 
story. 

The  Spaniards  were  now  convinced  that 
they  had  no  more  use  for  Central  America, 
and  rushed  to  the  ship  that  lay  in  the  river, 
determined  to  return  to  Spain  with  the 
Admiral.  The  ship,  however,  could  not 
be  got  over  the  bar,  and  the  terrified 
colonists  consented  to  listen  to  the  Ade- 
lentado's  advice,  and  to  attempt  to  fortify 


248  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  67 

the  settlement.  They  went  on  shore 
again,  and  threw  up  barricades — which,  as 
every  one  knows  who  is  familiar  with 
French  politics,  consist  of  boxes,  paving- 
stones,  omnibuses,  news-stands,  and  other 
heterogeneous  articles  piled  together. 

The  barricades  were  better  than  nothing 
as  defensive  works,  but  they  were  misera- 
bly weak.  Eleven  Spaniards  had  been 
killed  and  several  more  wounded,  in- 
cluding Don  Bartholomew,  and  as  the 
savages  vastly  outnumbered  them,  the 
prospect  that  any  of  the  colonists  would 
escape  was  extremely  small. 

Columbus  could  not  understand  why 
Tristan  did  not  return.  He  knew  that 
Tristan  was  a  faithful  and  obedient  man, 
and  that  there  was  no  rum  to  be  had  at 
the  settlement,  so  that  he  finally  began  to 
fear  that  the  natives  had  been  acting  in  a  dis- 
orderly way.  This  fear  was  increased  by 
the  conduct  of  Quibian's  wives  and  chil- 
dren, who  were  on  board  one  of  the  ves- 
sels. During  the  night  after  Tristan's 
departure  these  hasty  and  ill-bred  prisoners 


1503]  HIS  FOURTH  EXPEDITION.  249 

began  to  commit  suicide  by  hanging  them- 
selves or  by  jumping  overboard,  and  con- 
tinued this  recreation  so  persistently  that 
by  morning  not  one  of  them  was  left.  If 
women  and  children  could  do  such  an  un- 
civil thing  as  this,  it  was  only  too  probable 
that  the  men  of  the  same  race  were  capable 
of  creating  riot  and  bloodshed  ashore. 

There  was  only  one  available  small  boat 
at  the  command  of  the  Admiral,  and  the 
sea  on  the  bar  was  so  heavy  when  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  Quibian  family  was  dis- 
covered that  Columbus  did  not  dare  to 
send  the  boat  ashore.  Fortunately,  one  of 
the  pilots,  Pedro  Ledesma,  offered  to  swim 
ashore  if  the  boat  would  carry  him  part  of 
the  way.  His  offer  was  of  course  accepted, 
and  when  the  boat  was  a  short  distance 
from  the  shore  Ledesma  sprang  overboard 
and  successfully  swam  through  the  boiling 
surf.  He  returned  in  a  short  time,  bring- 
ing the  news  that  the  colonists  were  in 
immediate  danger  of  being  massacred. 

Unless  the  sea  should  go  down,  Colum- 
bus could  give  no  assistance  to  the  men 


CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  67 

on  shore,  and  there  was  no  prospect  that 
the  sea  would  go  down. 

Most  men  in  the  position  of  the  Admiral 
would  have  been  at  a  loss  what  to  do,  but 
Columbus  was  a  man  of  uncommon  re- 
sources. He  promptly  had  a  vision.  A 
voice  spoke  to  him  in  the  best  Scriptural 
style,  and  assured  him  that  everything  was 
all  right ;  that  the  colonists  would  be  saved, 
and  that  no  one  need  feel  any  uneasiness. 
It  is  probable  that  this  was  the  voice  of  a 
sainted  and  remote  ancestor  of  the  late 
William  H.  Seward,  and  it  filled  the  Ad- 
miral with  confidence — which  confidence 
it  is  possible  was  shared  by  the  sailors 
when  the  story  of  the  vision  was  told  to 
them.  The  voice  proved  to  be  a  veracious 
one,  for  the  next  morning  there  was  a  dead 
calm,  and  the  colonists,  with  all  their  por- 
table property,  were  safely  rafted  on  board 
the  ships,  which  immediately  set  sail  for 
San  Domingo  in  order  to  refit. 

It  was  now  the  end  of  April,  but  the 
weather  declined  to  improve.  Probably 
Columbus,  like  a  skilful  commander,  made 


1503]  HIS  FOURTH  EXPEDITION.  2$ I 

his  men  draw  lots  with  a  view  to  pilgrim- 
ages, and  encouraged  them  to  vow  to  at- 
tend church  in  their  shirts ;  but  there  is  no 
mention  of  these  manoeuvres  in  the  Admi- 
ral's log.  The  ships  were  nearly  eaten  up 
by  the  teredo  and  could  with  difficulty  be 
kept  afloat.  One  was  abandoned,  and  the 
crew  taken  on  board  the  other  two.  These 
reached  the  islands  lying  south  of  Cuba 
which  Columbus  had  discovered  on  his 
second  voyage,  where  they  were  detained 
nearly  a  week  by  violent  storms.  When 
the  voyage  was  resumed  the  head-winds 
promptly  resumed  also,  and  finally,  with 
his  ships  leaking  like  sieves  out  of  repair, 
and  his  provisions  nearly  exhausted,  Co- 
lumbus bore  up  for  Jamaica,  which  he 
reached  on  the  23d  of  June.  The  next 
day  he  entered  the  harbor  of  Port  Santa 
Gloria,  where  his  decrepit  vessels  were  run 
ashore  to  keep  them  from  sinking,  and 
were  firmly  lashed  together. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

HIS    LAST    YEARS. 

TH  E  ships  were  now  hopeless  wrecks, 
and  there  was  nothing  more  to  be 
done  with  them  except  to  abandon  them 
to  the  underwriters  and  claim  a  total  loss. 
The  only  chance  that  the  Spaniards  could 
avoid  laying  their  bones  in  the  bake-ovens 
of  the  Jamaican  natives  was  in  communi- 
cating with  San  Domingo,  but  in  the 
absence  of  any  efficient  postal  service  this 
chance  seemed  very  small.  Diego  Mcn- 
dez,  who  was  the  captain  of  one  of  the 
vessels,  and  who  had  earned  the  confidence 
of  Columbus  by  the  skill  with  which  he 
superintended  the  escape  of  the  beleagured 
colonists  from  Quibian's  hordes,  volun- 
teered to  take  a  canoe  and,  with  the  help 
of  Indian  paddlers,  make  his  way  across 
the  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  of  sea 
which  stretched  between  Jamaica  and  His- 


1503]  HIS  LAST    YEARS.  2$ 3 

paniola.  He  started  on  his  voyage,  and 
skirted  the  shore  of  Jamaica,  so  that  he 
could  land  from  time  to  time  and  take  in 
provisions. 

It  struck  the  natives  that  they  might  as 
well  improve  the  opportunity  to  lay  in 
provisions  for  themselves,  and  accordingly 
they  attacked  Mendez  with  great  energy 
and  appetite,  and  made  him  and  his  Indian 
paddlers  prisoners.  There  being  in  all 
seven  prisoners,  a  dispute  arose  as  to  the 
fairest  way  of  dividing  them,  and  the  sava- 
ges agreed  to  settle  it  by  a  game  of  chance 
— which  was  probably  "seven-up."  Men- 
dez took  advantage  of  the  quarrelling  to 
which  the  game  gave  rise,  and  ran  away. 
At  the  end  of  a  fortnight  he  appeared  be- 
fore the  Admiral  and  announced  that  all 
was  lost  except  honor  and  his  canoe. 

The  bold  Mendez  was  not  disheartened, 
but  volunteered  to  make  a  second  attempt. 
This  time  he  was  joined  by  Fresco,  the 
captain  of  the  other  wreck,  together  with 
twelve  Spaniards  and  twenty  Indians.  The 
expedition  started  in  two  large  canoes,  and 


CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [>Et.  67 

the  Adelentado,  with  an  armed  force, 
marched  along  the  shore  as  far  as  the  ex- 
treme eastern  point  of  the  island  to  pro- 
tect the  canoes  from  any  attack  by  the 
natives.  Mendez  and  his  companions  suf- 
fered terribly  from  exposure  and  thirst, 
and  many  of  the  Indian  paddlers  died — a 
fact  which  shows  either  that  the  Spaniards 
could  endure  thirst  better  than  the  Indi- 
ans, or  that  the  latter  had  less  water  to 
drink  than  the  former. 

The  expedition  finally  reached  Hispani- 
ola,  having  formed  a  very  low  opinion  of 
canoeing  as  an  athletic  sport.  According 
to  the  original  plan,  Mendez  was  to  induce 
Ovando  to  send  a  ship  to  Columbus,  and 
Fresco  was  to  return  with  the  news  that 
Mendez  was  at  San  Domingo,  hard  at 
work  inducing  the  Governor  to  send  the 
ship  ;  but  as  the  surviving  Indian  paddlers 
said  they  were  satiated  with  paddling  and 
did  not  intend  to  return  to  Jamaica, 
Fresco  was  compelled  to  remain  in  His- 
paniola. 

Ovando,  hearing  that  Columbus  was  in 


1503]  HIS  LAST    YEARS.  2$5 

Jamaica,  thought  he  had  better  stay  there, 
and  instead  of  sending  a  vessel  to  his  re- 
lief, constantly  promised  to  do  so  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment,  and  constantly 
took  good  care  that  no  such  moment 
should  arrive. 

Meanwhile  the  shipwrecked  men  were 
becoming  very  discontented.  When  a 
man  has  nothing  to  do  but  to  think  of 
what  he  is  to  have  for  dinner,  and  then 
never  has  it,  he  is  reasonably  sure  to  ex- 
hibit a  fretful  spirit.  This  was  the  con- 
dition of  the  Spaniards  at  Port  Santa 
Gloria.  They  were  living  on  board  the 
wrecked  vessels  because  they  did  not  care 
to  tempt  the  appetites  of  the  natives  by 
living  on  shore ;  and  as  the  Admiral  was 
confined  to  his  cabin  with  the  gout,  and 
could  not  overhear  them,  they  naturally 
relieved  their  minds  by  constantly  abusing 
him,  one  to  another. 

Francesco  de  Porras,  who  had  been  a 
captain  of  one  of  the  ships — and  it  really 
seems  as  if  there  were  as  many  captains  in 
proportion  to  the  size  of  the  fleet  as  there 


256  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [^Et.  67 

are  in  the  United  States  navy — thought 
this  was  a  favorable  time  for  mutiny,  and 
accordingly  proceeded  to  mutiny.  He 
reminded  the  men  that  Columbus  was  un- 
popular in  Spain,  and  was  forbidden  to 
land  in  San  Domingo.  This  being  true, 
why  should  he  ever  leave  Jamaica,  where 
he  had  nothing  to  do  except  to  lie  in  his 
cabin  and  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  gout  ? 
He  insisted  that  Mendez  and  Fresco  would 
never  return,  and  that  they  were  either 
drowned  or  had  gone  to  Spain.  In  short, 
by  lucid  arguments  such  as  these  he  con- 
vinced the  crews  that  Columbus  intended 
to  keep  them  in  Jamaica  for  the  rest  of 
their  lives. 

Having  thus  induced  the  crews  to  mu- 
tiny, Porras  went  into  the  Admiral's 
state-room  and  demanded  that  he  should 
instantly  lead  the  Spaniards  back  to  Spain. 
Columbus  took  the  ground  that  this  was 
an  unreasonable  demand,  since  an  ocean 
voyage  could  not  be  successfully  made 
without  vessels ;  but  Porras,  disgusted 
with  such  heartless  quibbling,  rushed  on 


1503]  HIS  LAST  YEARS. 

deck  and  called  on  his  followers  to  embark 
in  canoes  and  start  for  Cadiz  without  a 
moment's  delay.  His  proposal  was  en- 
thusiastically received,  and  a  tumult  en- 
sued which  brought  the  crippled  Admiral 
on  deck  on  his  hands  and  knees,  in  the 
vain  hope  of  enforcing  his  authority. 

It  was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  in 
•such  an  attitude  he  could  strike  the  mu- 
tinous sailors  with  awe.  Indeed,  the 
probability  that  they  would  strike  him 
instead  was  so  great  that  the  Adelentado 
had  his  brother  carried  back  to  the  cabin, 
and  there  stood  on  guard  over  him  as 
coolly  as  if  he  were  not  at  the  mercy  of  an 
armed  mob. 

The  mutineers,  to  the  number  of  fifty, 
seized  on  a  fleet  of  canoes  and  started  for 
Spain  by  way  of  San  Domingo.  Twice 
they  were  driven  back,  and  the  second 
time  they  gave  up  the  attempt.  They 
then  wandered  through  the  island,  rob- 
bing the  natives  and  alleging  that  they 
were  very  sorry  to  do  so,  but  they  were 
acting  under  express  orders  from  Colum- 


2$ 8  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  67 

bus,  and  that,  as  disinterested  friends  of 
the  noble  Jamaicans,  their  advice  was  that 
the  Admiral  should  be  killed  without 
delay. 

Weeks  and  months  passed  by,  and  no 
word  came  from  Mendez  and  Fresco. 
The  natives,  finding  the  Spaniards  at 
their  mercy,  made  a  corner  in  provisions 
and  refused  to  sell  except  at  an  exorbi- 
tant price.  Thus  famine  began  to  threaten 
the  unfortunate  explorers.  It  was  then 
that  Columbus  performed  his  celebrated 
eclipse  feat.  He  summoned  the  caciques, 
and  told  them  that  in  view  of  the  enor- 
mity of  their  conduct  it  had  been  decided 
to  withdraw  the  moon  from  heaven,  and 
that  this  purpose  would  be  carried  out  at 
the  end  of  three  days.  The  Admiral  had, 
of  course,  looked  into  his  Public  Ledger 
Almanac,  and  had  noticed  that  a  total 
eclipse  of  the  moon,  visible  throughout 
the  Gulf  States  and  the  West  Indies, 
would  take  place  on  the  night  in  question. 

When  the  third  night  came,  and  the 
eclipse  began,  the  Indians  were  terribly 


1503]  HIS  LAST    YEARS.  259 

frightened,  and  begged  the  Admiral  to 
forgive  them  and  give  them  back  their 
beloved  moon.  At  first  he  refused  to 
listen  to  them,  but  when  the  eclipse 
reached  its  period  of  greatest  obscuration 
he  relented,  and  informed  them  that,  for 
the  sake  of  the  young  men  and  young 
women  of  Jamaica,  to  whom  the  moon 
was  almost  indispensable,  he  would  give 
them  one  more  chance.  The  natives, 
overwhelmed  with  gratitude,  and  deter- 
mined not  to  lose  the  moon  if  they  could 
help  it,  brought  all  the  provisions  that  the 
Spaniards  wanted. 

This  was  the  first  instance  of  turning 
American  celestial  phenomena  to  prac- 
tical uses ;  but  the  example  of  Columbus 
has  since  been  followed  with  great  success 
by  our  scientific  men,  who  induce  the  gov- 
ernment to  send  them  at  vast  expense  to 
all  parts  of  the  world,  under  the  plausible 
pretext  of  superintending  total  eclipses 
and  transits  of  Venus. 

Mendez  had  been  gone  eight  months 
when  a  small  vessel  entered  the  harbor 


26O  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [^t.  67 

where  the  shipwrecked  vessels  were  lying. 
It  carried  Don  Diego  de  Escobar,  bearer 
of  despatches  from  Ovando  to  Columbus. 
Ovando  wrote  promising  to  send  a  ship  to 
rescue  Columbus  and  his  companions  as 
soon  as  he  could  find  one  suitable  for  the 
purpose.  Having  delivered  this  message 
and  received  an  answer,  De  Escobar  in- 
stantly sailed  away,  to  the  immense  dis- 
gust of  everybody.  He  was  not  altogether 
a  nice  person,  having  been  one  of  Roldan's 
gang  whom  Bobadilla  had  released  from 
prison.  The  Admiral  could  not  help  think- 
ing that  it  was  hardly  delicate  in  Ovando 
to  select  such  a  messenger,  but  it  was  still 
a  satisfaction  to  know  that  Mendez  had 
reached  San  Domingo,  and  that  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years  Ovando  might  find 
it  convenient  to  send  the  promised  ship. 

Columbus  now  thought  it  was  a  good 
time  to  offer  an  amnesty  to  Porras  and  his 
companions,  on  condition  that  they  would 
return  to  duty.  Porras  rejected  the  offer 
with  disdain.  He  informed  his  men  that 
it  was  only  a  trap  set  by  the  wily  Italian 


1503]  HIS  LAST   YEARS.  26l 

to  get  them  once  more  in  his  power. 
When  they  timidly  suggested  that  a  mes- 
senger from  Ovando  had  really  visited  the 
Admiral,  and  that  this  looked  as  if  negotia- 
tions were  in  progress  for  the  purpose  of 
arranging  for  the  rescue  of  the  expedition, 
Porras  boldly  insisted  that  the  alleged 
messenger  and  the  vessel  in  which  he  was 
said  to  have  arrived  had  no  existence. 
They  were  simply  "  materialized"  by  Colum- 
bus, who  was  a  powerful  spiritual  medium, 
and  they  had  already  vanished  into  theno- 
thingness  from  which  they  had  been  called. 

Convinced  by  this  able  address,  the 
mutineers  decided  to  remain  under  the 
leadership  of  Porras,  who  immediately 
marched  with  them  to  attack  the  Admiral 
and  to  seize  the  stores  that  still  remained. 
Don  Bartholomew  met  them,  and  after  a 
hard  fight  completely  defeated  them,  taking 
Porras  prisoner.  The  survivors  gladly 
surrendered,  and  Columbus  magnanimous- 
ly forgave  them. 

In  June,  1503,  two  ships  arrived  from 
San  Domingo.  One  had  been  fitted  out 


262  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.         [JEt.  67 

by  Mendez,  and  the  other  by  O  van  do, 
who  saw  that  Columbus  would  be  rescued, 
and  that  he  might  as  well  earn  part  of  the 
credit  therefor.  The  Spaniards  hurriedly 
embarked,  and  on  the  23d  of  the  month, 
after  a  stay  of  more  than  a  year  in  Jamaica, 
they  sailed  for  San  Domingo,  where  they 
arrived  after  a  voyage  of  about  six  weeks. 
Ovando  professed  to  be  exceedingly  glad 
to  meet  the  Admiral,  and  told  him  that  for 
the  last  six  or  eight  months  he  had  been 
steadily  occupied  in  wasting  to  a  mere 
shadow,  so  anxious  had  he  been  to  find  a 
favorable  moment  for  deciding  upon  the 
propriety  of  sending  a  vessel  to  the  rescue 
of  his  distinguished  friend.  Columbus  re- 
ceived his  explanation  with  politeness, 
remarking  "  Ha  !"  and  also  "  Hum  !"  at 
appropriate  intervals,  just  to  intimate  that, 
while  he  did  not  care  to  argue  with  Ovando, 
he  was  not  quite  so  credulous  as  some 
people  imagined.  The  populace  were  dis- 
posed to  overlook  their  bad  treatment  of 
their  former  Governor,  inasmuch  as  his 
arrival  at  San  Domingo  was  an  interrup- 


1503]  HIS  LAST   YEARS.  26$ 

tion  of  the  monotony  of  their  life  ;  so  they 
cheered  him  when  he  passed  through  the 
street,  and  gave  the  old  man  the  last 
glimpse  of  anything  like  popularity  which 
he  was  to  see. 

Columbus  was  not  anxious  to  remain 
long  in  the  island.  His  business  affairs 
were  in  an  intricate  state  of  confusion,  and 
though  a  large  sum  of  money  was  due  to 
him,  he  could  not  collect  it.  The  condi- 
tion of  the  Indians  filled  him  with  grief. 
Under  the  rule  of  Ovando  they  had  been 
constantly  driven  to  revolt  by  oppression, 
and  then  mercilessly  massacred,  while  the 
Spanish  priests  had  expended  a  great 
deal  of  firewood  and  worn  out  several  full 
sets  of  controversial  implements,  such  as 
racks  and  thumbscrews,  in  converting  them 
to  Christianity.  Columbus  saw  that  his 
discovery  of  Hispaniola  had  led  to  the  ruin 
and  misery  of  its  people,  and  he  could  not 
remain  in  any  comfort  amid  so  much  suf- 
fering. Porras  had  already  been  sent  as  a 
prisoner  to  Spain,  and  on  September  i2th 
Columbus  followed  him.  Ovando  had 


264  CHRISTOPHER    COLUMBUS.        (>Et.     67 

supplied  two  vessels,  one  commanded  by 
Columbus  and  the  other  by  Don  Bartho- 
lomew, but  one  of  them  was  soon  sent 
back  as  being  unseaworthy.  After  a  stormy 
voyage  the  ship  arrived  at  San  Lucas  on 
November  7th,  and  the  sick  and  crippled 
Admiral  was  carried  to  Seville,  where  he 
intended  to  rest  before  proceeding  to 
court. 

This  time  he  was  not  received  with  any 
enthusiasm.  He  had  so  often  returned 
from  voyages  to  China  without  bringing 
with  him  so  much  as  a  broken  tea-cup  as  a 
sample  of  the  Celestial  Kingdom,  that  the 
public  had  lost  all  interest  in  him.  People 
who  read  in  their  newspapers  among  the 
list  of  hotel  arrivals  the  name  of  Colum- 
bus, merely  remarked,  "  So  he's  back  again 
it  seems,"  and  then  proceeded  to  read  the 
criticism  upon  the  preceding  night's  bull- 
fight. The  popular  feeling  was,  that  Co- 
lumbus had  entirely  overdone  the  matter 
of  returning  home  from  profitless  explora- 
tions. There  were  other  explorers  who 
came  back  to  Spain  with  stories  much 


1503-1506]  HIS  LAST    YEARS.  26$ 

more  imaginative  than  those  which  Colum- 
bus could  tell,  and  the  Spanish  public  had 
turned  its  attention  from  Prester  John  and 
the  Emperor  of  China  to  the  Amazonian 
warriors  of  South  America  and  the  Foun- 
tain of  Youth  which  explorers  of  real  en- 
terprise were  ready  to  discover. 

Had  there  been  any  knowledge  of  the 
science  of  politics  in  Spain,  Columbus 
would  have  been  a  person  of  considerable 
importance  in  his  old  age.  The  Radicals 
would  have  rallied  around  him,  and  would 
have  denounced  the  atrocious  manner  in 
which  a  treacherous  and  reactionary  mon- 
archy had  treated  him.  Columbian  clubs 
would  have  been  established  everywhere, 
and  he  would  have  been  made  to  serve  as 
the  stalking-horse  of  an  unprincipled  and 
reckless  faction. 

When  we  compare  the  way  in  which  the 
Italian  republicans  have  used  the  name  and 
fame  of  Garibaldi  as  the  most  effective 
weapon  in  striking  at  the  monarchy  which 
has  made  United  Italy  possible,  we  cannot 
but  despise  the  ignorance  of  politics  shown 


266  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.    [^Et.  67-70 

by  the  Spaniards  in  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century. 

Columbus,  though  utterly  worn  out,  was 
still  able  to  write  letters.  He  wrote  to  the 
King,  to  the  Queen,  to  everybody  who  had 
any  influence,  asking  that  his  honors  and 
privileges  should  be  restored,  and  hinting 
that  he  was  ready  to  be  sent  back  to  San 
Domingo  as  Governor.  No  one  paid  any 
attention  to  him.  Other  men  were  fitting 
out  exploring  expeditions,  and  Columbus, 
with  his  splendid  dreams  and  his  peculiar 
mixture  of  religion  and  geography,  was  re- 
garded as  a  foolish  old  man  who  had  out- 
lived his  original  usefulness.  He  was  too 
sick  to  visit  the  court  and  personally  ex- 
plain why  he  had  not  discovered  the  Pana- 
ma Canal,  and  the  King,  having  failed  to 
keep  his  own  promises,  was  naturally  not 
at  all  anxious  to  see  him.  Perhaps  Isa- 
bella would  have  still  remained  faithful  to 
her  old  prote'ge',  but  she  was  on  her  death- 
bed, and  died  without  -seeing  him. 

In  May,  1505,  Columbus  managed  to 
go  to  Segovia,  where  Ferdinand  held  his 


1503-1506]  HIS  LAST   YEARS.  267 

court.  He  saw  the  King,  but  got  very  lit- 
tle pleasure  thereby.  Ferdinand  was  now 
a  widower  and  his  own  master ;  and  his 
manner  plainly  showed  Columbus  that, 
whatever  the  King  might  promise,  he 
never  intended  to  keep  his  word  and  do 
justice  to  the  man  who  had  given  him  a 
new  world. 

The  end  was  now  drawing  near,  and  Co- 
lumbus made  a  codicil  to  his  will,  expressing 
his  last  wishes.  Beatrix  Enriquez  was 
still  alive,  though  whether  she  too  had  for- 
saken Columbus  we  are  not  told.  It  is 
pleasant  to  find  that  the  Admiral  remem- 
bered her,  and  in  the  codicil  to  his  will  or- 
dered his  son  Diego  to  see  that  she  was  pro- 
perly cared  for,  adding,  "  and  let  this  be 
done  for  the  discharge  of  my  conscience,  for 
it  weighs  heavy  on  my  soul."  He  had  neg- 
lected to  marry  Beatrix,  and,  unlike  most 
men  in  like  circumstances,  the  neglect  bur- 
dened his  conscience.  This  codicil  was 
almost  the  last  act  of  his  busy  life ;  and  on 
the  2othof  May,  1506,  repeating  the  Latin 
words,  In  manus  tuas,  Domine,  commendo 


268  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS.          [yEt.  70 

spiritum  meum,  he  died  with  the  calmness 
of  a  brave  man  and  the  peace  of  a  Chris- 
tian. He  had  lived  seventy  years,  and  had 
literally  worn  himself  out  in  the  service  of 
the  royal  hound  whose  miserable  little  soul 
rejoiced  when  he  heard  that  the  great  Ital- 
ian was  dead. 

Columbus  was  buried  almost  as  much  as 
he  was  born.  His  first  burial  was  in  the 
convent  of  St.  Francisco.  Seven  years 
later  he  was  buried  some  more  in  the  Car- 
thusian convent  in  Seville.  In  1536  he 
was  carried  to  San  Domingo  and  buried 
in  the  Cathedral,  and  afterward  he  was,  to 
some  extent,  buried  in  Havana.  Whether 
Havana  or  San  Domingo  has  at  present 
the  best  claim  to  his  grave,  is  a  disputed 
point 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

HIS    CHARACTER   AND    ACHIEVEMENTS. 

TTITHERTO  we  have  proceeded  upon 
11  the  assumption  that  Columbus  was  a 
real  historical  person.  It  is  one  of  the 
limitations  of  biography  that  the  writer 
must  always  assume  the  existence  of  the 
subject  of  his  sketch.  There  are,  how- 
ever, grave  reasons  for  doubting  whether 
Christopher  Columbus  ever  lived.  There 
is  the  matter  of  his  birthplace.  Is  it  cred- 
ible that  he  was  born  in  seven  distinct 
places  ?  Nobody  claims  that  George 
Washington  was  born  in  all  our  promi- 
nent cities,  or  that  Robinson  Crusoe,  who 
was  perhaps  the  most  absolutely  real  per- 
son to  be  found  in  the  whole  range  of 
biography,  was  born  anywhere  except  at 
York.  Can  we  believe  that  the  whole  of 
Columbus  was  simultaneously  buried  in 
two  different  West  Indian  cities  ?  If  we 


2/O  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS. 

can  accept  any  such  alleged  fact  as  this, 
we  can  no  longer  pretend  that  one  of  the 
two  Italian  cities  which  boast  the  posses- 
sion of  the  head  of  John  the  Baptist  is 
the  victim  of  misplaced  confidence. 

And  then  the  character  of  Columbus  as 
portrayed  by  his  admiring  biographers  is 
quite  incredible,  and  his  alleged  treatment 
by  the  King  and  Queen  whom  he  served 
is  to  the  last  degree  improbable.  The 
story  of  Columbus  is  without  doubt  an 
interesting  and  even  fascinating  one ;  but 
can  we,  as  fearless  and  honest  philoso- 
phers, believe  in  the  reality  of  that  sweet 
Genoese  vision — the  heroic  and  noble  dis- 
coverer of  the  New  World  ? 

There  are  strong  reasons  for  believing 
that  the  legend  of  Christopher  Columbus 
is  simply  a  form  of  the  Sun  myth.  We 
find  the  story  in  the  Italian,  Spanish,  and 
English  languages,  which  shows,  not  that 
Colombo,  Colon,  and  Columbus  ever 
lived,  breathed,  ate  dinner,  and  went  to 
bed,  but  that  the  myth  is  widely  spread 
among  the  Indo-Germanic  races.  Co- 


HIS  CHARACTER.  2JI 

lumbus  is  said  to  have  sailed  from  the 
east  to  the  west,  and  to  have  disappeared 
for  a  time  beyond  the  western  horizon, 
only  to  be  found  again  in  Spain,  whence 
he  had  originally  sailed.  Even  in  Spain, 
he  was  said  to  have  had  his  birthplace  in 
some  vague  locality  farther  east,  and  to 
have  reached  Spain  only  when  near  his 
maturity. 

This  is  a  beautiful  allegorical  descrip- 
tion of  the  course  of  the  sun  as  it  would 
appear  to  an  unlearned  and  imaginative 
Spaniard.  He  would  see  the  sun  rising 
in  the  distant  east,  warming  Spain  with 
his  mature  and  noonday  rays,  setting  be- 
yond the  western  horizon  in  the  waters 
of  the  Atlantic,  and  again  returning  to 
Spain  to  begin  another  voyage,  or  course, 
through  the  heavens.  The  clouds  which 
at  times  obscure  the  sun  are  vividly  repre- 
sented by  the  misfortunes  which  dark- 
ened the  career  of  Columbus,  and  his 
imprisonment  in  chains  by  Bobadilla  is 
but  an  allegorical  method  of  describing  a 
solar  eclipse.  The  colonists  who  died  of 


2/2  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS. 

fever  under  his  rule,  like  the  Greeks  who 
fell  under  the  darts  of  the  Sun  God,  re- 
mind us  of  the  unwholesome  effects  pro- 
duced by  the  rays  of  a  tropical  sun  upon 
decaying  vegetation ;  and  the  story  that 
Columbus  was  buried  in  different  places 
illustrates  the  fact  that  the  apparent  place 
of  sunset  changes  at  different  points  of  the 
year. 

There  is  very  much  to  be  said  in  favor 
of  the  theory  that  Columbus  is  a  personi- 
fication of  the  Sun,  but  that  theory  can- 
not be  accepted  either  by  a  biographer 
or  by  any  patriotic  American.  The  one 
would  have  to  put  his  biography  of  the 
Great  Admiral  in  the  fire,  and  the  other 
would  lose  all  certainty  as  'to  whether 
America  had  ever  been  discovered.  We 
must  resolve  to  believe  in  the  reality  of 
Columbus,  no  matter  what  learned  sceptics 
may  tell  us ;  and  we  shall  find  no  difficulty 
in  so  doing  if  we  found  our  belief  on  a 
good  strong  prejudice  instead  of  reason- 
able arguments. 

Let  us  then  permit  no  man  to  destroy 


HIS  CHARACTER.  2/3 

our  faith  in  Christopher  Columbus.  We 
can  find  fault  with  him  if  we  choose ;  we 
can  refuse  to  accept  Smith's  or  Brown's 
or  Jones's  respective  estimates  of  his  char- 
acter and  deeds :  but  let  us  never  doubt 
that  Columbus  was  a  real  Italian  explorer ; 
that  he  served  an  amiable  Spanish  Queen 
and  a  miserable  Spanish  King;  and  that 
he  sailed  across  a  virgin  ocean  to  discover 
a  virgin  continent. 

There  prevails  to  a  very  large  extent  the 
impression  that  the  voyages  of  Columbus 
prove  that  he  was  a  wonderfully  skilful 
navigator,  and  it  is  also  commonly  be- 
lieved that  the  compass  and  the  astrolabe 
were  providentially  invented  expressly  in 
order  to  assist  him  in  discovering  America. 
There  was,  of  course,  a  certain  amount  of 
practical  seamanship  displayed  in  keeping 
the  Santa  Maria  and  her  successors  from 
being  swamped  by  the  waves  of  the  At- 
lantic ;  but  it  may  be  safely  asserted  that 
only  a  very  slight  knowledge  of  navigation 
was  either  exhibited  or  needed  by  Colum- 
bus. The  ships  of  the  period  could  do 


2/4  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS. 

nothing  except  with  a  fair  wind.  When 
the  wind  was  contrary  they  drifted  slowly 
to  leeward,  and  when  the  wind  was  fair  a 
small-boy  with  a  knowledge  of  the  elements 
of  steering  could  have  kept  any  one  of 
them  on  her  course.  The  compass  was  a 
handy  thing  to  have  on  board  a  ship,  since 
it  gave  to  the  sailors  the  comfortable  feel- 
ing which  an  ignorant  man  always  has  in 
the  presence  of  any  piece  of  mechanism 
which  he  fancies  is  of  assistance  to  him ; 
but  for  all  practical  purposes  the  sun  and 
the  stars  were  as  useful  to  Columbus  as 
was  his  compass  with  its  unintelligible 
freaks  of  variation.  So,  too,  the  astrolabe 
must  have  impressed  the  sailors  as  a  sort 
of  powerful  and  beneficent  fetish,  but  the 
log-book  of  Columbus  would  have  testified 
that  the  astrolabe  was  more  ornamental 
than  useful. 

The  system  of  navigation  followed 
by  Columbus  was  to  steer  as  nearly 
west  as  practicable  on  the  way  to 
America,  and  to  steer  as  nearly  east  as 
possible  on  his  way  back  to  Spain.  In 


HIS  CHARACTER.  2?$ 

the  one  case  he  would  be  sure  to  hit  some 
part  of  the  New  World  if  he  sailed  long 
enough,  and  in  the  other  case  persistent 
sailing  would  be  sure  to  bring  him  within 
sight  of  either  Europe  or  Africa.  In 
neither  case  could  he  so  far  overrun  his 
reckoning  as  to  arrive  unexpectedly  at 
some  point  in  the  interior  of  a  continent. 
The  facts  prove  that  this  was  precisely 
the  way  in  which  Columbus  navigated  his 
ship.  When  steering  for  America  he 
never  knew  where  he  would  find  land,  and 
was  satisfied  if  he  reached  any  one  of  the 
countless  large  and  small  West  India 
islands ;  and  on  returning  to  Spain  there 
was  as  much  probability  that  he  would 
find  himself  at  the  Azores  or  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Tagus  as  at  any  Spanish  port. 

The  truth  is,  that  neither  the  seaman- 
ship of  Columbus  nor  the  invention  of  the 
compass  or  the  astrolabe  made  his  first 
voyage  successful.  Probably  any  one  of 
the  thousands  of  contemporary  Italian 
sailors  could  have  found  the  West  Indies 
as  easily  as  Columbus  found  them,  pro- 


2/6  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS. 

vided  the  hypothetical  sailor  had  possessed 
sufficient  resolution  to  sail  westward  until 
the  land  should  stop  his  way.  What  we 
should  properly  be  called  upon  to  admire 
in  Columbus  as  a  navigator  of  unknown 
seas  is  the  obstinacy  with  which  he  ad- 
hered to  his  purpose  of  sailing  due  west 
until  land  should  be  found,  no  matter  if  it 
should  take  all  summer.  It  was  an  ob- 
stinacy akin  to  that  with  which  our  great 
Union  General  fought  his  last  campaign. 
Such  obstinacy  will  sometimes  accomplish 
greater  results  than  the  most  skilful  navi- 
gator or  the  profoundest  strategist  could 
accomplish.  Had  the  man  who  discovered 
our  country  or  the  man  who  saved  it  been 
less  obstinate,  American  history  would 
have  been  widely  different  from  what  it 
has  been. 

As  the  astrolabe  has  been  mentioned 
several  times  in  the  course  of  this  narra- 
tive, it  may  be  well  to  describe  it,  espe- 
cially as  it  is  now  obsolete.  It  was  an 
instrument  of  considerable  size,  made  of 
some  convenient  material — usually  either 


HIS  CHARACTER. 

metal  or  wood,  or  both — and  fitted  with 
various  contrivances  for  the  purpose  of 
observing  the  heavenly  bodies.  When  a 
navigator  took  an  observation  with  the 
astrolabe  he  immediately  went  be  lovvand 
"worked  it  up"  with  the  help  of  a  slate 
and  pencil,  and  in  accordance  with  the 
rules  of  arithmetic  and  algebra.  The 
result  was  a  series  of  figures  which 
greatly  surprised  him,  and  which  he  in- 
terpreted according  to  the  humor  in 
which  he  happened  to  find  himself.  A 
skilful  navigator  who  could  guess  his 
latitude  with  comparative  accuracy  gener- 
ally found  that  an  observation  taken  with 
the  astrolabe  would  give  him  a  result  not 
differing  more  than  eighty  or  ninety  de- 
grees from  the  latitude  in  which  he  had 
previously  imagined  his  ship  to  be,  and  if 
he  was  an  ingenious  man  he  could  often 
find  some  way  of  reconciling  his  observa- 
tion with  his  guesses.  Thus  the  astrolabe 
gave  him  employment  and  exercised  his 
imagination,  and  was  a  great  blessing  to 
the  lonesome  and  careworn  mariner. 


CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS. 

It  is  our  solemn  duty,  as  Americans,  to 
take  a  warm  interest  in  Christopher  Co- 
lumbus, for  the  reason  that  he  had  the 
good  taste  and  judgment  to  discover  our 
beloved  country.  Efforts  have  frequently 
been  made  to  deprive  him  of  that  honor. 
It  has  been  urged  that  he  was  not  the 
first  man  who  crossed  the  Atlantic,  that 
he  never  saw  the  continent  of  North 
America,  and  that  he  was  not  the  original 
discoverer  of  South  America.  Most  of  this 
is  undoubtedly  true.  It  is  now  generally 
conceded  the  Norwegians  landed  on  the 
coast  of  New  England  about  six  hundred 
years  before  Columbus  was  born ;  that 
Americus  Vespuccius  was  the  first  Euro- 
pean to  discover  the  South  American 
continent ;  that  Sebastian  Cabot  redis- 
covered North  America  after  the  Nor- 
wegians had  forgotten  all  about  it ;  and 
that  Columbus  never  saw  any  part  of  what 
is  now  the  United  States  of  America. 
For  all  that,  Columbus  is  properly  en- 
titled to  be  called  the  discoverer  of  the 
New  World,  including  the  New  England, 


HIS  CHARACTER. 

Middle,  Gulf,  Western,  and  Pacific  States. 
Who  invented  steamboats  ?  And  who  in- 
vented the  magnetic  telegraph  ?  Every 
patriotic  American  echo  will  answer,  "  Ful- 
ton and  Morse."  There  were  nevertheless 
at  least  four  distinct  men  who  moved  ves- 
sels by  machinery  driven  by  steam  before 
Fulton  built  his  steamboat,  and  nearly 
twice  that  number  of  men  had  sent  mes- 
sages over  a  wire  by  means  of  electricity 
before  Morse  invented  the  telegraph. 
The  trouble  with  the  steamboats  invented 
by  the  pre-Fultonians,  and  the  telegraphs 
invented  by  the  predecessors  of  Morse, 
was  that  their  inventions  did  not  stay  in- 
vented. Their  steamboats  and  telegraphs 
were  forgotten  almost  as  soon  as  they  were 
devised  ;  but  Fulton  and  Morse  invented 
their  steamboats  and  telegraphs  so  thor- 
oughly that  they  have  stayed  invented 
ever  since. 

Now,  the  Norwegians  discovered  Amer- 
ica in  such  an  unsatisfactory  way  that  the 
discovery  came  to  nothing.  They  did  not 
keep  it  discovered.  They  came  and  looked 


280  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS. 

at  New  England,  and,  deciding  that  they 
had  no  use  for  it,  went  home  and  forgot 
all  about  it.  Columbus,  who  knew  noth- 
ing of  the  forgotten  voyage  of  the  Nor- 
wegians, discovered  the  West  India  islands 
and  the  route  across  the  Atlantic  in  such 
a  workmanlike  and  efficient  way  that  his 
discoveries  became  permanent.  He  was 
the  first  man  to  show  people  the  way  to 
San  Domingo  and  Cuba,  and  after  he  had 
done  this  it  was  an  easy  thing  for  other 
explorers  to  discover  the  mainland  of 
North  and  South  America.  He  thus 
discovered  the  United  States  as  truly  as 
Fulton  discovered  the  way  to  drive  the 
City  of  Rome  from  New  York  to  Liver- 
pool, or  Morse  discovered  the  method  of 
sending  telegrams  over  the  Atlantic  cable. 
We  need  not  be  in  the  least  disturbed 
by  the  learned  men  who  periodically  de- 
monstrate that  Leif  Ericson,  as  they  famil- 
iarly call  him,  was  the  true  discoverer  of 
our  country.  We  need  never  change 
"  Hail  Columbia"  into  "  Hail  Ericsonia," 
and  there  is  not  the  least  danger  Co- 


HIS  CHARACTER.  28 1 

lumbia  College  will  ever  be  known  as 
Leifia  University.  We  can  cheerfully  ad- 
mit that  Leif  Ericson — or,  to  give  him 
what  was  probably  his  full  name,  Elipha- 
let  B.  Ericson — and  his  Norwegians  landed 
somewhere  in  New  England,  and  we  can 
even  forgive  the  prompt  way  in  which  they 
forgot  all  about  it,  by  assuming  that  they 
landed  on  Sunday  or  on  a  fast-day,  and 
were  so  disheartened  that  they  never 
wanted  to  hear  the  subject  spoken  of  again. 
We  can  grant  all  this,  and  still  cherish  the 
memory  of  Columbus  as  the  true  and  only 
successful  discoverer  of  America. 

Most  biographers  have  written  of  Co- 
lumbus in  much  the  same  way  that  a 
modern  campaign  biographer  writes  the 
life  of  the  Presidential  candidate  from 
whom  he  hopes  to  receives  an  office. 
They  forget  that  he  was  never  nominated 
by  any  regular  party  convention,  and  that 
it  is  therefore  wrong  to  assume,  without 
any  sufficient  evidence,  that  he  was  the 
greatest  and  best  man  that  ever  lived.  He 
was  undoubtedly  a  bold  sailor,  but  he 


282  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS. 

lived  in  an  age  when  bold  sailors  were 
produced  in  quantities  commensurate  with 
the  demands  of  exploration,  and  we  can- 
not say  that  he  was  any  bolder  or  better 
sailor  than  the  Cabots  or  his  own  brother 
Bartholomew.  He  was  certainly  no  braver 
soldier  than  Ojeda,  and  his  conquests  were 
trifling  in  comparison  with  those  of  Cortez 
and  Pizarro. 

As  a  civil  ruler  he  was  a  conspicuous 
failure.  It  is  true  that  the  colonists  over 
whom  he  was  placed  were,  many  of  them, 
turbulent  scoundrels ;  but  the  unanimity 
with  which  they  condemned  his  adminis- 
tration, and  the  uniformity  with  which 
every  commissioner  appointed  to  investi- 
gate his  conduct  as  a  ruler  condemned 
him,  compel  us  to  believe  that  he  was  not 
an  able  governor  either  of  Spanish  colo- 
nists or  contiguous  Indians.  He  was  not 
habitually  cruel,  as  was  Pizarro,  but  he  in- 
sisted upon  enslaving  the  Indians  for  his 
own  profit,  though  Queen  Isabella  had 
forbidden  him  to  enslave  them  or  to  treat 
them  harshly. 


HIS  CHARACTER.  283 

He  could  be  magnanimous  at  times,  but 
he  would  not  undertake  a  voyage  of  dis- 
covery except  upon  terms  which  would 
ensure  him  money  and  rank,  and  he  did 
not  hesitate  to  claim  for  himself  the  re- 
ward which  was  offered,  during  his  first 
voyage,  to  the  man  who  should  first  see 
the  land,  and  which  was  fairly  earned  by 
one  of  his  sailors. 

As  an  explorer,  he  failed  to  find  a  path 
to  India,  and  he  died  under  the  delusion 
that  Pekin  was  somewhere  in  Costa  Rica. 
His  first  voyage  across  the  broad  Atlantic 
seems  to  us  a  wonderful  achievement,  but 
in  either  difficulty  or  danger  it  cannot  be 
compared  with  Stanley's  march  across  the 
African  continent.  We  must  concede  to 
Columbus  a  certain  amount  of  boldness 
and  perseverance,  but  we  cannot  shut  our 
eyes  to  the  faults  of  his  conduct  and 
character. 

And  yet  Columbus  was  a  true  hero. 
Whatever  flaws  there  may  have  been  in 
the  man,  he  was  of  a  finer  clay  than  his 
fellows,  for  he  could  dream  dreams  that 


284  CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS. 

their  dull  imaginations  could  not  conceive. 
He  belonged  to  the  same  land  which  gave 
birth  to  Garibaldi,  and,  like  the  Great 
Captain,  the  Great  Admiral  lived  in  a 
high,  pure  atmosphere  of  splendid  visions, 
far  removed  from  and  above  his  fellow- 
men.  The  greatness  of  Columbus  cannot 
be  argued  away.  The  glow  of  his  enthu- 
siasm kindles  our  own,  even  at  the  long 
distance  of  four  hundred  years,  and  his 
heroic  figure  looms  grander  through  suc- 
cessive centuries. 


THE    END. 


INDEX. 


Aguado,  Juan,  appointed  in- 
vestigator, 185;  investigates, 
188;  makes  nothing  by  it, 

195. 

Angel,  Luis  de  St.,  56;  offers 
to  advance  money,  57. 

Astrolabe,  invented,  32;  de- 
scription of,  276. 

Black  Crook,  thought  to  have 
broken  out  in  Spain,  194. 

Bobadilla,  Francisco  de,  ar- 
rives in  Hispaniola,  221;  ar- 
rests Columbus,  228;  sends 
Columbus  to  Spain,  229. 

Boyle,  Father  Bernardo,  133; 
desires  to  burn  somebody, 
150,  163;  is  disappointed, 
174. 

Caonabo,  160 ;  captured,  175  ; 
dies,  193. 

Cedo,  Fermin,  alleged  scienti- 
fic person,  158. 

Cogoletto,  alleged  birth-place 
of  Columbus,  i. 

Columbus,  Bartholomew,  born 
and  translated,  4;  is  sent  to 
England,  38;  arrives  at  His- 
paniola, 171;  made  Governor 
of  Isabella,  191  ;  able  com- 
mander, 209  ;  arrested,  228  ; 
sails  with  fourth  exploring 
expedition,  236  ;  defeats  Por- 
ras,  261. 


Columbus,  Christopher,  born, 

I  ;  translated,  3  ;  anecdotes 
of     boyhood,    5  ;     goes     to 
Pavia,    9  ;   becomes   sailor, 

II  ;   engages  in  Neapolitan 
expedition,  12;  deceives  sail- 
ors or  posterity,    13  ;    does 
not  arrive  in  Portugal,  16  ; 
does  arrive  there,  18 ;  marries, 
19  ;  makes  maps,  20  ;  lives 
at  Porto  Santo,  21  ;  goes  to 
Iceland    or   elsewhere,   28  ; 
talks  to  King  John,  35  ;  goes 
to  Spain,  38  ;  deposited  with 
Quintanilla,4i;  meets  Scien- 
tific Congress,  43  ;  goes  to 
Convent  of  Rabida,49;  meets 
committee   on   exploration, 
54  ;  starts  for  France,   56  ; 
goes  to  Palos,  61  ;  sails  on 
first  voyage,  67  ;  keeps  false 
reckoning,  56;  discovers  San 
Salvador.  89;  sails  for  Spain, 
97  ;    wrecked,  102  ;   founds 
colony,  105  ;  sees  Mermaids, 
no  ;    displays    seamanship, 
115;  arrives  at  Azores,  116  ; 
arrives   at  Palos,   125  ;  flat 
tens  egg,  135  ;  sails  on  sec- 
ond voyage,  138  ;  discovers 
Dominica,  141  ;   returns   to 
Spain,    191  ;  loses   popular- 
ity, 196  ;  sails  on  third  voy- 
age, 200;  discovers  Trinidad, 
204  ;  invents  ingenious  the- 


286 


INDEX. 


ory,  205  ;  arrives  at  Hispa- 
niola,  208  ;  arrested,  228  ; 
sent  to  Spain,  229  ;  arrives 
in  Spain  ,230  ;  sails  on  fourth 
voyage,  237  ;  reaches  Hon- 
duras, 240  ;  searches  for 
Panama  Canal,  240  ;  founds 
colony  at  Veragua,  243  ; 
sails  away,  250 ;  reaches 
Jamaica,  251  ;  manages 
lunar  eclipse,  258  ;  reaches 
Hispaniola,  262  ;  returns  to 
Spain,  264  ;  dies,  268  ;  is 
extensively  buried,  268  ; 
perhaps  is  a  sun-myth,  269; 
character,  284. 

Columbus,  Diego,  born,  4  ; 
Governor  of  Isabella,  162  ; 
sent  to  Spain  to  wait  for 
opening  in  Connecticut,  177; 
returns  to  Hispaniola,  187  ; 
arrested  by  Bobadilla,  227. 

Columbu?,  Dominico,  combs 
wool,  3. 

Compass,  variation  of,  55. 

Congress  of  Salamanca,  46 ; 
its  tediousness,  45. 

Correo,  Pedro,  21;  he  winks, 
25  ;  is  talked  to  death,  34. 

Enriquez,  Beatrix,  loves  not 
wisely  but  too  well,  41  ;  is 
mentioned  in  Columbus's 
will,  267. 

Ericson,  Eliphalet  B.,  discov- 
ers America,  281. 

Eclipse,  story  of,  258. 

Egg,  story  of,  135. 

Ferdinand,  King  of  Aragon, 
40. 

Guacanagari,  his  affection  for 
Columbus,  101  ;  his  suspi- 


cious leg,  150  ;  falls  exten- 
sively in  love,  152  ;  protects 
Spaniards,  175. 

Isabella,  Queen  of  Castile,  41. 

John,  King  of  Portugal,  29 ; 
his  dishonorable  conduct, 
34- 

La    Navidad,    founded,    105  ; 

destroyed,  148. 
Ledesma,  Pedro, swims  ashore, 

249. 

Marchena,  Juan  Perez  de,  prior 
of  a  convent,  50  ;  makes  a 
night  of  it  with  Columbus, 

51- 

Margarite,  rebels,  174. 
Mendez,  Diego,  tries  to  reach 

Hispaniola    from    Jamaica, 

252  ;  succeeds,  254. 
Mendoza,   Cardinal  de,   gives 

dinner,  135. 
Mexica,  De,  rebels,  219. 

Ojeda,  Alonzo  de,  is  a  just 
man,  158;  captures  Caonabo, 
175  ;  arrives  at  Xaragua, 
215  ;  his  interview  with 
Roldan,  216. 

Ovando,  Nicholas  de,  sent  to 
Hispaniola,  233  ;  refuses  to 
let  Columbus  land,  237  ;  de- 
lays to  send  aid  to  Colum- 
bus 255  ;  finally  does  send 
it,  262. 

Perestrello,  Mrs.,  mother-in- 
law  of  Columbus,  20 ;  her 
use  of  the  stove-lid,  21. 

Pinzon,  Martin  Alonzo,  fits 
out  ship  to  join  Columbus, 


INDEX. 


287 


56  ;  has  a  brilliant  idea,  83  ; 
deserts,  97  ;  met  by  Colum- 
bus, lob  ;  reaches  Palos, 
127  ;  displays  good  sense, 
128. 

Pinzon,  Vincente  Yanez,  fits 
out  ship  to  join  Columbus, 
56. 

Porras,  Francisco  de,  muti- 
nies, 256  ;  defeated  and 
captured,  261. 

Prester  John,  who  he  was, 
31  ;  who  he  was  not,  166. 

Quibian,  attacks  colony,  2\(> 


Quintanilla,  receives  Columbus 
on  deposit,  41. 

Roldan,  Francisco,  rebels,  210; 
compromises,  215;  outwits 
Ojeda,  216  ;  drowned,  239. 

Ships,  rigged  by  Indianians,64. 

Talavera,     De,    the     Queen's 

confessor,  43. 
Triano,    De,    discovers    land, 

86  ;  is  disgusted. 

Villejo,  Alonzo  de,  risks  his 
eyes,  229. 


A    001400428    7 


vRY  Or  Tr, 


